Yujie Zhou

During my residency at Saari, I plan to continue my research and artistic practice for the series of works titled ‘Panoptic Segmentation’. The project seeks to explore the connection between socially constructed collective narratives and the fragmented, anonymous forms of individual protest. It encompasses various mediums, including photography, video, performance, textiles, and publishing.

The residency will enable me to focus on reading, thinking, and writing, and hopefully further develop the work in progress about the linguistic variations in photographic definitions. In Latin, the term photography is associated with the act of “drawing with light,” while in Chinese, the term refers to “capturing the shadow.” This divergence leads me to ask: why does the Chinese understanding of photography carry a shadowy connotation? To me, the use of shadow in Chinese photography signifies a desire to explore the concealed and marginalized aspects of our reality. Thus, I have chosen to embrace the Chinese interpretation of photography and use shadow as a tool to tackle the invisible.

Yujie Zhou (b. Chengdu, China) is a visual artist working with expanded photography, textile works, moving images, installation, and publishing. Through performativity and a decoded notion of language, their practice seeks to interrogate dominant historical narratives and power structures while reframing collective individuality.

Zhou is based in Helsinki, Finland, where they completed their Master’s degree in Arts with a major in Photography and a minor in Textiles – Materials and Structures at Aalto University in 2023. Their work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Finnish Museum of Photography, Photographic Centre Peri, Photographic Gallery Hippolyte (Finland), BFoto Festival (Spain), FORMAT Photography Festival (UK), and alpha nova & galerie futura (Germany) as part of Berlin Art Week 2023.