Zinan Li

Zinan’s inspiration comes from her feeling of being anxious in certain social situations, as someone who suffers from a social phobia: people like this normally use body language or similar behaviour to protect themselves in specific social situations.

This is a way to reduce these people’s anxiety, in fact, this kind of social phenomenon also appears in everyday life. Psychologist John Hejduk has pointed out that there is an invisible ‘bubble-shaped space’ around everyone, which he calls ‘private space’, For example, when people are wearing headphones and listening to music, this private space will be created and defined by themselves: the feeling of security will be brought to the wearers through this behaviour. Zinan hopes that people can define their own ‘bubble spaces’ through her work. It provides a choice: when the user wants to be alone in public, they can cover themselves and enjoy a moment of tranquillity in the hustle and bustle; also, the user’s mental state can be communicated through their interaction with her pieces: when the wearer feels less confident, they can put down part of the piece to cover themselves: in contrast, the wearer can lift the covering to show themselves. However, When they want to take part in groups of others around them, they can lift the veil and blend in. Everyone should respect their own feelings, and at the same time respect the diversity of cultures and individual differences, accepting the different requirements of others for private space, so that society can achieve unity and integration.

 In early times, a mask had the function of protecting the wearer; however, as times changed, the mask could also show the personality of the wearer and be used as a face covering. People can use her work as a way to express themselves – for example, joining the conversations of others. She thinks the mask always has an interesting dual nature: its power lies in the dynamic between hiding and revealing – a good one looks both inwards and outwards at the same time, she also aims to let the wearer express their feelings and style in the form of a mask, focusing on how to create personal spaces behind the mask. Her work can also be used by people to cover themselves, building virtual personal spaces and showing another personality that allows people to be more comfortable of being themselves. These two functions are bound tightly together; she wants the viewer to use this feature of her work to express their own feelings.