Huaiying Cai

Information Experience Design (MA)
Huaiying Cai is a transmedia artist whose work interweaves installation, performance, sculpture and sound to explore the emotional and political landscapes of the body. Her work involves the intersections of materiality, identity and transformation. Cai is particularly drawn to materials with unstable or ambivalent states and how they reflect bodily sensations, memories and social meanings. She enjoys using her own body as a tool and site, addressing themes of empowerment, vulnerability, control, pain and care. Her work is heavily influenced by cultural semiotics and their changing role in autonomous narratives. She is interested in moments that are not yet fully formed.
In Before Becoming, I explore the evolving and typically conflicting cultural meanings of tattoos, lace, and body modification. Once associated with gangs, control and purity, these practices and symbols have shifted to narratives of empowerment, desire and bodily autonomy. Materials such as wax, aluminum and concrete are used to sculpt three installations, each shaped by the artist's body. Their physicality echoes a series of dual concepts: empowerment and domination, expression and control, strength and vulnerability, caring and violence, softness and hardness, pleasure and pain. Through performance, video and sound, the body is both a site and a tool for transformation, expressing a tension between resistance and submission, softness and strength.
In Before Becoming, I explore the evolving and typically conflicting cultural meanings of tattoos, lace, and body modification. Once associated with gangs, control and purity, these practices and symbols have shifted to narratives of empowerment, desire and bodily autonomy. Materials such as wax, aluminum and concrete are used to sculpt three installations, each shaped by the artist's body. Their physicality echoes a series of dual concepts: empowerment and domination, expression and control, strength and vulnerability, caring and violence, softness and hardness, pleasure and pain. Through performance, video and sound, the body is both a site and a tool for transformation, expressing a tension between resistance and submission, softness and strength.
Chapter 1: Wax & Body Suspension
Metal is associated with piercing in both material and feeling. Sharpness, coldness and the sharp violence of the piercing are shared qualities of both. However, what may seem painful, such as a needle or a piece of aluminum, can also bring relief and beauty. Many people describe piercing as a way to regain control or release inner tension. In this work, I bend the lacy aluminum sheet with my own body, leaving traces and memories of the pressure applied, just as the body retains the memory of the piercing.
Metal is associated with piercing in both material and feeling. Sharpness, coldness and the sharp violence of the piercing are shared qualities of both. However, what may seem painful, such as a needle or a piece of aluminum, can also bring relief and beauty. Many people describe piercing as a way to regain control or release inner tension. In this work, I bend the lacy aluminum sheet with my own body, leaving traces and memories of the pressure applied, just as the body retains the memory of the piercing.
Chapter 2: Metal & Piercing
Concrete is similar to tattoos. The pain of a tattoo is slow, multi-layered and leaves permanent marks. In return, it gives strength, a visual language of resistance, healing or identity. Once concrete is poured and hardens, it becomes heavy, solid, and almost impossible to change.
Concrete is similar to tattoos. The pain of a tattoo is slow, multi-layered and leaves permanent marks. In return, it gives strength, a visual language of resistance, healing or identity. Once concrete is poured and hardens, it becomes heavy, solid, and almost impossible to change.
Chapter 3: Concrete & Tattoo
Video
In Before Becoming, I explore the evolving and typically conflicting cultural meanings of tattoos, lace, and body modification. Once associated with gangs, control and purity, these practices and symbols have shifted to narratives of empowerment, desire and bodily autonomy. Materials such as wax, aluminum and concrete are used to sculpt three installations, each shaped by the artist's body. Their physicality echoes a series of dual concepts: empowerment and domination, expression and control, strength and vulnerability, caring and violence, softness and hardness, pleasure and pain. Through performance, video and sound, the body is both a site and a tool for transformation, expressing a tension between resistance and submission, softness and strength.
Metal is associated with piercing in both material and feeling. Sharpness, coldness and the sharp violence of the piercing are shared qualities of both. However, what may seem painful, such as a needle or a piece of aluminum, can also bring relief and beauty. Many people describe piercing as a way to regain control or release inner tension. In this work, I bend the lacy aluminum sheet with my own body, leaving traces and memories of the pressure applied, just as the body retains the memory of the piercing.
Concrete is similar to tattoos. The pain of a tattoo is slow, multi-layered and leaves permanent marks. In return, it gives strength, a visual language of resistance, healing or identity. Once concrete is poured and hardens, it becomes heavy, solid, and almost impossible to change.

About

Huaiying Cai is a transmedia artist whose work interweaves installation, performance, sculpture and sound to explore the emotional and political landscapes of the body. Her work involves the intersections of materiality, identity and transformation.

Cai is particularly drawn to materials with unstable or ambivalent states and how they reflect bodily sensations, memories and social meanings. She enjoys using her own body as a tool and site, addressing themes of empowerment, vulnerability, control, pain and care. Her work is heavily influenced by cultural semiotics and their changing role in autonomous narratives. She is interested in moments that are not yet fully formed.

In Before Becoming, I explore the evolving and typically conflicting cultural meanings of tattoos, lace, and body modification. Once associated with gangs, control and purity, these practices and symbols have shifted to narratives of empowerment, desire and bodily autonomy. Materials such as wax, aluminum and concrete are used to sculpt three installations, each shaped by the artist’s body. Their physicality echoes a series of dual concepts: empowerment and domination, expression and control, strength and vulnerability, caring and violence, softness and hardness, pleasure and pain. Through performance, video and sound, the body is both a site and a tool for transformation, expressing a tension between resistance and submission, softness and strength.

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