PALIMPSEST: WOMEN, TEXT, AND THE ACT OF SELF-INSCRIPTION
Artist & Works
Yuxi Zhong



Yuxi Zhong's work is an improvisation of life. Through installations, photography, video, and performance, she interprets the contradictory and amusing phenomena of everyday life with a sardonic way. She focuses on the power dynamics in urban public spaces, striving to explore the tensions between individuals, society, and the self. Yuxi reflects on the feelings of uneasiness, anxiety, and impulsiveness that urban life brings to people through unconventional objects and behaviors. Her installation works start from the human body and try to explore the uncertainty and crisis in familiar things, thereby revealing the universal vulnerability of human beings.


ins:@ciicii_art/ @yuxi3055




Encounter (2025)
Polaroid photograph, Tracing paper, Cotton thread, MDF, Metal supports

This project unfolds as an exploration of encounter and trust, framed through a time-limited interaction with strangers. The process follows a simple rule: I invite a selected passerby to take two photographs, without any social contact in between. I take the first Polaroid and hand it to the participant for safekeeping, while we agree on the time and place for the second photograph. Without exchanging any contact information, our second meeting relies entirely on a verbal promise—an experiment in presence, memory, and commitment, reflecting the fragile and ephemeral connections between individuals.

The project seeks to reveal the simultaneously unfamiliar and intimate distances that exist between people in contemporary society, while offering a critique of today’s interpersonal relationships. I attempt to build trust with strangers. In a highly international city like London, despite its dense population, human connections are often scarce. This distance becomes even more pronounced in highly urbanized, commercialized, and market-driven environments. Such tenuous connections reflect an unspoken understanding that is private, polite, and pragmatic.