Loneliness
Loneliness examines how isolation can emerge within continuous relational structures, rather than existing only as the absence of connection. The work draws from Chinese relational ethics, where the self is historically understood as formed through family and social networks rather than through individual autonomy. Since early moral texts such as the Classic of Filial Piety, emotional responsibility has been positioned as a foundation of familial and social stability — a structure that continues to shape contemporary relational expectations in more implicit ways.
The work is presented at near life scale. Soft materials are held within a timber framework, while hand-like padded forms lean, press and fold into the structure, creating a condition where support and dependency coexist. Rather than representing intimacy, the structure reflects relational stability systems, where emotional responsibility and obligation are continuously negotiated.
A coiled telephone cable references persistent communication within family structures. In many Chinese familial contexts, continued contact often carries an expectation of emotional response and availability. Here, loneliness is positioned not as emotional absence, but as a condition that can exist within sustained relational and emotional responsibility structures.
Through bodily spatial experience, the work considers how emotional identity is formed and reshaped within systems of care, obligation and social expectation.