Ephemeral Landmark
Environmental Netting
Jiangsu Province. China
2023
Ephemeral Landmark, supported by BFM Art Center, is a site- specific performance that confronts the human and environmental toll of rapid urbanisation. Created amidst the demolition at Suzhou’s Zhuihong Bridge Scenic Spot, the work responds to a landscape in crisis: a mountain of rubble, all that remains of a vanished village. In this performance, I transform myself into a temporary monument. Lying prostrate upon the debris, my body becomes an “X” that marks a specific location on a map. This cruciform pose, with limbs outstretched, is a dual symbol—it evokes both a site of sacrifice and the universal gesture that marks a place of significance. By embedding myself within the wreckage and the ubiquitous green safety netting meant to shield the surrounding city from the destruction, I aim to make the invisible visible. I become an ephemeral landmark for the memories and histories now buried in the dust. The green environmental netting is a critical element of the work. Typically used for protection, here it paradoxically shrouds the destruction, cradling the debris as if it were a relic.
This juxtaposition poses an uncomfortable question about our relationship with progress: What are we truly protecting? The netting frames the rubble not as worthless waste, but as a repository of memory—the final, fragile skin of a community that has been erased.
I used a drone because the performance needed to be seen from above as well as lived on the ground. The aerial camera translates my body into a cartographic “X,” turning a private act of mourning into a public landmark and revealing the full scale of the demolition, the surrounding city, and the fragile green netting that mediates between them. The drone also documents an inaccessible, unsafe, and ephemeral site, allowing the work to survive beyond its temporary existence and to hold together two perspectives at once: the intimate body in the rubble and the distant, surveying eye that measures loss in the name of progress. Ephemeral Landmark is a meditation on the delicate balance between development and loss. It uses the artist’s body as a bridge between the old and the new, asking the viewer to consider what is sacrificed in the name of progress and what it truly means to preserve a place.
Performance film : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zJqM60ouJs
‘Ephemeral Post-Artefact’
Reclaimed Ceramic Roof Tiles, Plastic Shrink wrap
Suzhou. China
2023
The “Ancestral Post-Artefact” sculptural series is a thought- provoking collection of artworks that emphasizes the intricate relationship between past and present; the ephemeral nature of performance art and its documentation through images; and the central concept of the performance itself: the human impact on the environment. The series features traditional Chinese roof tiles recovered directly from the actual performance site—the remnants of a village near the Zhuihong Bridge Scenic Spot in Suzhou, China— where artist KIMVI’s performance “Ephemeral Landmark” took place. Blending traditional and modern elements, the work incorporates printed plastic shrink wrap bearing images from that performance. Captured through drone photography, the images were printed onto plastic shrink wrap—a material typically associated with product branding and preservation. When heat is applied, the wrap encases the object, taking on its form and covering the tiles simultaneously. This method preserves the tiles and creates a poignant contrast between the new (plastic) and the old (tiles), weaving a rich narrative about preservation and memory.