Installation view, Zhang Yibei's works at "The Jealous Potter", UCCA Clay, 2025.
The annual Huayu Youth Award is highly anticipated because it always brings together some young people who, in the peaceful silence, can hear the sound of the cracks in the world slowly bursting in the dark corners. For this reason, they may be anxious or calm. But they are equally lovely. They use various languages to let others hear what they hear. After all, what they give is the truth they see. If the sound of the explosion echoes, it is a signal that the cover-up is about to be revealed.
The three sculptures on display are from the series of works - "Everything can become a vase if a hole is drilled in it". Through the act of "drilling holes", the artist transforms each work in the space into a vase. Drilling holes is both destruction and construction, peeling and sticking. The hole in the vase seems to be a certainty, but in fact it opens up the boundary, giving the vase an extra space and creating more possibilities. Therefore, the works in the exhibition hall will be placed between the states of "no longer being something" and "becoming a vase". In the exhibition hall, the re-divided and reassembled septic tanks continue the topic of urban construction that the artist has always been concerned about. The septic tanks that hold people's excrement are no longer hidden under high-rise buildings. The tower gates are presented in space like a "city map". The artist hopes that the audience will enter as flower arrangers, transform their own life experiences into flowers, and wander among various visible and invisible vases.
