Tingen Xiao

Arts & Humanities (MFA)
Woman preparing food beneath a suspended edible installation, captured in profile view.
An East Asian woman sits silently at the centre of a round table, wearing a pale yellow floor-length dress that seamlessly extends into the tablecloth. The food on the table has been eaten, leaving only scattered traces. A guest seated at the edge of the table is leaning forward, using a part of the dress-tablecloth to wipe their mouth.
An East Asian woman sits silently at the centre of a round table, wearing a pale yellow floor-length dress that seamlessly extends into the tablecloth. The food on the table has been eaten, leaving only scattered traces. A guest seated at the edge of the table is leaning forward, using a part of the dress-tablecloth to wipe their mouth.
Migration Table Part 2 / Performance-based installation / Mixed media and video (single-channel, silent, colour, 9 minutes) / Dimensions variable / 2025
A cluster of delicate edible sculptures rests on a stone. Each features a white, wave-like crisp base topped with translucent pearls made from fish sauce and scattered seaweed flakes—resembling tiny tidepools or fragments of dissolving memory.
A cluster of delicate edible sculptures rests on a stone. Each features a white, wave-like crisp base topped with translucent pearls made from fish sauce and scattered seaweed flakes—resembling tiny tidepools or fragments of dissolving memory.
Autonomy of Fish / Edible installation / Crispy rice base, spherified fish sauce pearls, seaweed / Dimensions variable / 2024
An East Asian woman dressed in black holds a sheet of grey dough in front of her face. Two holes have been torn in the dough like eyeholes in a mask. Her eyes look directly through them into the camera.
An East Asian woman dressed in black holds a sheet of grey dough in front of her face. Two holes have been torn in the dough like eyeholes in a mask. Her eyes look directly through them into the camera.
Grey Dough Suitcase / Live performance and edible interaction / Edible material, photography / 5 minutes / 2024
Three images show an edible installation. The first shows a spiral painting topped with golden tofu “cushions” arranged in a circular pattern. The second shows many bite-sized tofu snacks scattered over a powder-covered table, garnished with white cheese, herbs, and red toppings. The third shows a hand reaching toward a smiling face shape drawn with white onions on a surface sprinkled with green and purple spice powder.
Three images show an edible installation. The first shows a spiral painting topped with golden tofu “cushions” arranged in a circular pattern. The second shows many bite-sized tofu snacks scattered over a powder-covered table, garnished with white cheese, herbs, and red toppings. The third shows a hand reaching toward a smiling face shape drawn with white onions on a surface sprinkled with green and purple spice powder.
Shamiyaana Cushion – Let’s sit on the tofu cushion and ‘chaat’ together! Edible installation / Fried tofu cushions, chaat toppings, spice pigments / Dimensions variable / 2024
An East Asian woman sits silently at the centre of a round table, wearing a pale yellow floor-length dress that seamlessly extends into the tablecloth. The food on the table has been eaten, leaving only scattered traces. A guest seated at the edge of the table is leaning forward, using a part of the dress-tablecloth to wipe their mouth.
A cluster of delicate edible sculptures rests on a stone. Each features a white, wave-like crisp base topped with translucent pearls made from fish sauce and scattered seaweed flakes—resembling tiny tidepools or fragments of dissolving memory.
An East Asian woman dressed in black holds a sheet of grey dough in front of her face. Two holes have been torn in the dough like eyeholes in a mask. Her eyes look directly through them into the camera.
Three images show an edible installation. The first shows a spiral painting topped with golden tofu “cushions” arranged in a circular pattern. The second shows many bite-sized tofu snacks scattered over a powder-covered table, garnished with white cheese, herbs, and red toppings. The third shows a hand reaching toward a smiling face shape drawn with white onions on a surface sprinkled with green and purple spice powder.

About

Tingen Xiao is a London-based artist with a background in sociology and a cross-cultural upbringing between China and the UK. Her work centres on food as a medium of social tension—something that structures relationships through offering, withholding, and shared presence.

Working primarily with food as medium, her practice spans performance, participatory installation, and video. Exploring care, misrecognition, and uneven exchange. Rather than aiming to create harmony, her practice leans into asymmetry and contradiction—staging moments of friction that are quiet but charged.

Her recent project Migration Table Part 2 is a single-channel video installation based on a live performance, in which she sits silently at the centre of a rotating mirrored table, offering food to guests. The work explores visibility, marginality, and the contradictions of service within the migrant condition.

Drawing on both lived experience and theoretical frameworks, Xiao treats food as more than a symbol—it’s a soft, embodied language that shapes how we relate to each other.

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