Coconut coir bricks, when dry, appear highly compressed and stable, but upon contact with water, they rapidly expand into a substrate for cultivation. This transformation in material state reflects the inherent uncertainty and fluidity of internal systems, which Yiyao Tang interprets as a potential to transcend established boundaries and frameworks of order. The artist printed images of Wenzhou’s shoe factories, captured during her field research, onto selected bricks and arranged them in a staggered matrix on a large rectangular platform within the exhibition space, documenting and reenacting the transition of manufacturing spaces from bustling production to partial abandonment. By integrating spatial context, material properties, and visual narratives, the artist examines the institutional foundations that sustain systems of resource distribution and power operations—revealing that the surface appearance of “stability” is
far from unbreakable, instead comprising a dynamic structure of disruptions, fractures, and echoes.

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