Xiaoyang Meng

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Xiaoyang Meng

About

Installation，2024
Becoming the Rhizome of Oysters
2024



Becoming the Rhizome of Oysters responds to the possibility of new species in the Anthropocene and explores the question of what creatures are ‘supposed’ to be and the ethical question of the extent to which humans should intervene in them.

Installation
Size: 90cm*51cm*47cm
Material: Plaster Cast Bandage, Embroidery Thread, Iron Net, Iron Wire


Dual-channel video
Duration: 2:21
[Left] Underwater landscape, Welwyn North, UK.
[Right] Oyster aquaculture, Fujian, China.










We are now in the capitalist Anthropocene, and how we truly recognise humanity’s place in the system, and how we perceive the relationship between humans and living things from multiple perspectives, is an urgent thing for modern humans to address. The special historical position of the oyster allows me to choose it as a research object. Oysters have existed on earth for 259 million years, but after a century of encountering humans, their ‘wildness’ has gradually disappeared, and nowadays, artificial triploid oysters, which are infertile, have almost lost their function of water filtration when they are cemented to a string .The modern edible oyster is like a new kind of hydroponic plant.


If humans continually intervene in the growth process of the oyster, in what way will the oyster exist on earth when it is out of the animal frame?


Inspired by A Thousand Plateaus 、 The Companion Species Manifesto, the project presents a critical possibility that considers human behaviour and existence as the oyster’s rhizome. During the making of the project, the author dove underwater several times to experience the environment in the water and to discover what it feels like to be the rhizome of an oyster. Finally, the author present these experiences to the audience through poetry, video , and installation.https://2024.rca.ac.uk/school-of-communication/information-experience-design-ma/profile/xiaoyang-meng/









Director: Xiaoyang Meng
DP: Ruisan Ge
DM : princessM:eow
Oyster Video Provider：Guanbin Cai

Biologist Collaboration
Guanbin Cai、Lv Liang

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