Research Statement
Yichen Zhao’s practice investigates the operational logic of contemporary power structures through mechanical systems, biological metaphors, and material transformation.
In her work, the body is not treated as a site of emotional expression, but as a functional interface embedded within larger structures. By simulating processes such as swallowing, circulation, erosion, and replacement, she examines how individuals are standardized into functional units within systemic frameworks and ultimately reduced to what she terms the “residual” — simultaneously indispensable and perpetually replaceable.
Zhao’s installations are structured around cyclical mechanisms. These cycles reveal a calm yet persistent automated logic: systems sustain themselves through continuous wear and renewal. What appears stable is, in fact, a metabolically ongoing process of consumption.
Her research operates at the intersection of sculptural practice, systems theory, and socio-structural analysis. She is concerned with how structures embed themselves within bodies, how subjectivity becomes procedural, and how repetition transforms living entities into replaceable components.
Her work raises the following questions:
When participation becomes consumption, where is the boundary?
Does the structure really stop, or does it merely replace the objects it consumes continuously?