KINETIC SCULPTURES

MOUTHLESS
ORBIT OF OBEDIENCE
0 - - - 1 - - - 0
COLLECTIVE INFECTION
ALL & 1
WIPIN’

MOUTHLESS

MOUTHLESS
Soft Serve, Metal, Artificial Readymade Tongue, Acrylic, and Mechanical Component
2024
135 x 40 x 30 cm

This work explores the tensions between desire, labour, and consumption. Mechanical tongues relentlessly lick melting soft serve, evoking unfulfilled cravings, emphasises the absurdity of repetitive, and mechanical labour. The installation embodies a visceral commentary on the commodification of pleasure and the absurdity of mechanised consumption, where satisfaction is forever out of reach. It reflects contemporary society's cyclical, exploitative nature of production and desire. The tongues' futile attempts to 'consume' something that is both fleeting and unattainable critique how automation dehumanises effort and how such systems often fail to meet human needs.

TONGUE - Packaged in Limited Edition of 50, Hand Signed

ORBIT OF OBEDIENCE

Orbit of Obedience
Polystyrene Ball, Acrylic Film, Wood, Motor, Fan, Fabric and Battery
2024
80 x 80 x 15 cm

When the ball levitates in mid-air, defying gravity, it always returns to the same place within the acrylic film, as if effortless. This symbolises the cycle of repetition and stagnation experienced by individuals within oppressive systems. It also always remains within a self-defined boundary that it could never get out of.

Inspired by the physics and motion of this, I was intrigued to work on the idea of external forces pushing over a movement for the next practice, with the exploration of the relationship between stable and unstable, visibility and invisibility, and the collective power around labourers.

0 - - - 1 - - - 0

0 - - - 1 - - - 0
Trousers, Wood, Mechanical Component, Springs, Fabric, Polish, Mannequin Foot, and Faux Leather Shoes
2024
100 x 60 x 60 cm

The piece explores the tension between tradition and modernity, merging handcrafted elements with mechanical components to critique the commodification of labour. Repetitive, physical tasks, though undervalued, remain integral to social systems. Examining how automation encroaches upon human effort prompts viewers to reflect on the cost of progress and the diminishing visibility of physical labour in a mechanised world.

By reimagining the shoeshine box—a symbol of gendered and classed servitude—through concealed actuators and simulated human gestures, the work exposes the erasure of bodily labour in favour of automated performance. The wooden hands, rendered uncanny by their metallic finish, oscillate between presence and absence, evoking the spectral remnants of human workers in post-industrial economies. The mass-produced faux leather shoe and trousers implicate fast fashion’s exploitative supply chains, while the handcrafted woodwork alludes to artisanal traditions eroded by commodification.

Theoretical underpinnings from Bourdieu and Gramsci resonate in the piece’s critique of self-exploitation under piece-rate logic, as the relentless shine-dirty-shine cycle mirrors the futility of "making out" under capitalist production. The actuator, hidden like the suppressed mechanisms of globalised labour, underscores automation’s false promise of liberation, revealing instead its reinforcement of systemic fragility. By framing shoeshining—a declining trade once reliant on human interaction—as an automated ritual, the work underscores the absurdity of progress that prioritises efficiency over dignity.

0 - - - 1 - - - 0 challenges the viewer to question what (and who) is rendered expendable in the march toward automation. The work refuses resolution, suspending us in the discomfort of its unresolved motion—a fitting metaphor for labour’s unresolved place in the contemporary imaginary.

COLLECTIVE INFECTION

Collective Infection
Fabric, Fibre Stuffing, Conveyor Belt
2023
150 x 50 x 30 cm

This work explores the ceaseless labour activity entangles the individual with the collective. Collective Infection revolves around the ubiquitous teddy bear, a childhood companion, reflecting the pervasive influence of an infectious force within our society. The manufacturing process of teddy bears is reminiscent of an assembly line; it also perpetuates a lineage of labour passed down through three generations of women in my family. This embodies the generations of individuals trapped by capitalism, ‘labour’ being consistent within society, and the cyclical nature of labour reoccurs as a loop under the relentless force of capitalism.

Based on the experiences of my grandmother in 1960s-70s Hong Kong, a period marked by widespread industrialisation, it becomes apparent that almost every household played a role in this collective effort. Women, in particular, would bring home semi-finished products like stuffed toys to assemble at home with their children. Then, they would return the completed pieces to the factories.

Initially appearing uniform in colour, embodying a uniqueness hidden beneath their seemingly standardised appearance, which creates a sense of ‘we are all different, but we are all the same’.

I replicated the production mode of labourers working on teddies without the use of machines, hand-sewing each piece by hand.

ALL & 1

All & 1
TPU Fabric, Readymade Teddy Bear, Metal, Acrylic, Motor
2024
Size Variable

The work explores the invisible threads between labour and intimacy, tracing how capitalism infiltrates the most tender spaces—childhood, domesticity, and the hands of women. Inspired by the past industrial rhythms, where home assembly lines blurred the boundaries between familial care and factory exploitation, the work mirrors the paradox of individuality within mechanised repetition.

Through the repetitive process of making teddy bears in Collective Infection, a sense of perpetual exhaustion and powerlessness emerges, prompting me to explore the constraining aspects of labour. As well as how industrialisation infiltrates intimacy, turning love and labour into interchangeable currencies. All & 1 exposes the violence lurking beneath nostalgia, framing cuteness as a site of exploitation. The inflatable’s hollow interior, packed with disposable replicas, mirrors capitalism’s false promise of abundance, where workers are both consumed and rendered invisible.

WIPIN’

WIPIN’
Print, Metal, Mechanical Component, and Cloth
2025
165 x 100 x 41 cm

A mechanised cleaning arm repeatedly wipes the centre of a printed image of a dirty window, yet the surrounding dust, and bird droppings remain untouched. The work critiques automation’s illusion of progress—appearing productive while achieving nothing. It questions the paradox of labour under capitalism, where cycles of maintenance and automation replace but never truly eliminate human effort.

Where accelerationists like Nick Land envision machinic liberation, WIPIN’ lingers in the grotesque comedy of failure. The machine, blind to its own futility, scrubs at an illusion—a photograph of grime it can never cleanse, enacting capitalism’s blind faith in progress through Sisyphean ritual. Dirt persists, the window remains static, and the cloth’s relentless motion devolves into tragicomedy, underscoring what Amanda Beech terms automation’s “fatal antagonism”: a paradox where promises of liberation collapse into perpetual stasis. The wiping arm’s choreography mirrors late capitalism’s demand for motion without progress, its myopic efficiency exposing automation as a flawed sacrament—labor abstracted into pure, meaningless gesture. Here, humour becomes a subversive tool, estranging the familiar to reveal systemic absurdity. Unlike Land’s fantasies of escape velocity, WIPIN’ traps both machine and viewer in a feedback loop of unfulfilled potential, where transcendence is endlessly deferred.

Automated World