Caltrops

Hu Jiayi, Caltrops, Performance/Video installation (5-channel), 2023

Description

Text/Sofie

In this artwork we find that a suit of armor, originally intended as a defensive barrier, becomes a form of restraint. In an abandoned factory, Hu Jiayi dons a set of Don Quixote-style medieval knight armor, engaging in a battle against her own shadow, upholding inner courage, confidence, and faith.

Through her interaction with the ‘fallen societal windmills,’ she connects the geographical environment with her psychological experience. She poses the question of “how to face the shackles of caltrops,” as she searches for a cycle of shelter and adventure, bestowing and reclaiming her own system of meaning.

Carrying the artist’s sense of mission, she grandiosely pursues a place of inner peace, persistently falling and rising again, striving to construct an ideal realm of ‘I become.’