Manshee Zheng (b.2002, Beijing, China)
Manshee’s practice reflects a world caught between contradictions: permanence and decay, presence and absence, connection and alienation, creating a space where meaning emerges not through clarity but through the act of dwelling in the complexity of the in-between.
She is drawn to objects that are integral to daily existence—shoes, beds, tools, and even the human form itself. Objects in her work frequently embody a dual role: they are tools meant to serve, yet their very presence prompts questions about their purpose and the broader implications of functionality. They occupy a realm that is simultaneously hyper-functional and profoundly unresolved, suggesting a deeper commentary on the ways people and objects alike are shaped by the demands of productivity.
Images, ideals, and abstractions dominate this space, penetrating and intensifying the tensions between the processed and the raw. These visual and conceptual frameworks, often presented as aspirational, obscure the fragility of human connection and the complexity of temporal existence. By perpetuating a sense of sterility and detachment, they replace genuine presence with a hollow mimicry of resolution, revealing the eerie intersection of what is produced and what is lost.
Her compositions refuse resolution, presenting suspended moments that echo the unresolved nature of contemporary life. They reveal a landscape saturated with overproduction, where even ideals and abstractions are commodified, stripped of their origins, and repurposed into tools of alienation. Her work shows these fractures, not to offer closure but to dwell within the complexity, encouraging a deeper awareness of the systems and symbols that shape our reality.
She employs synthetic materials and storytelling to highlight the contradictions inherent in contemporary life. These surfaces, often sterile and unyielding, serve as both mediums and metaphors, reflecting a deep-seated desire to transcend the boundaries between the real and the artificial. Through her use of these materials, she underscores the tension between the organic and the synthetic, where the pursuit of control and permanence clashes with the inherent vulnerability of existence. The layered, often fragmented writing embedded within her work questions the very nature of authenticity and illusion, pushing the viewer to consider how the artificial seeks to replicate or replace what is real while often exposing the absence of intimacy and imperfection. In this process, the distinction between what is "real" and what is "constructed" becomes increasingly blurred, urging a reconsideration of the systems that govern both our physical and conceptual worlds.