“Distant bloodline” emerges from a contemplation on kinship within China’s unique historical context. Under the one- child policy, the generations of the 80s and 90s were nearly devoid of biological siblings, replaced instead by a multitude of “cousins.” This generation lives in the fissures of blood ties, where kinship exists only on the surface, beneath which lies the reflection of the self.

In the Distant bloodline series, the shell serves as both a metaphor for the spiritual “exterior” and a symbol of the insurmountable barriers between individuals. The series continues the artist's distinctive use of media: the iconography of portraits on Polaroid film juxtaposed with the materiality of shells as image carriers, creating a subtle tension between light and weight, the fleeting and the eternal, the past and the future.