Zhang Xinyi

Master of Fine Arts, Department of Painting, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University

2025 Recipient of Outstanding Master’s Degree Achievement, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University
2025 Work collected by Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University

My exploration and research concern personality traits and life journey. The inspiration for my works stems from how family environment shapes individuals and the inner projection of people toward the external world, serving as the narrative thread of my creative work.

Introduction

“The self” is invisible; it can only be understood when it collides with something else and bounces back.

Each person’s character is unique and irreplicable. I am accustomed to observing a person’s way of speaking and behavioral habits to contemplate the subtle connections between external manifestations and inner character. In my creative work, I dissect and trace the origins of my own thinking patterns, emotions, and self-contradictions, attempting to use my own growth as an example to consider the influence of family factors on personality formation.

The family’s influence on a person’s character is profound and complex. In childhood family environments, others’ concepts, behavioral patterns, and interpersonal interactions serve as the “causes” for becoming oneself, while one’s behavioral principles and interpersonal relationships in society represent the “effects”, this can be viewed as the dual projection of subjective concepts both inward and outward.

In this series of works, “Such Wind Blew into Every Night Thereafter,” “Time is an Illusion Itself,” and “Never, Ever” express retrospection of the past, namely the “causes”; “Reverse” and “From Never Wanting to Refuse to Being Unable to Retain” express reflections on the present, namely the “effects.”

My creation is based on the way images and memory perception manifest at the conscious level, presenting a visual effect of “overlapping memories.” The association between objects and memories prompts self-understanding of how each stage shapes the self during retrospection, thereby continuously developing and evolving.

Creative Content and Conception

I regard each work in the series as different chapters of a complete narrative. They each carry their own stories while maintaining visible or hidden connections with one another, making the series present a relatively complete narrative atmosphere overall.

“Such Wind Blew into Every Night Thereafter”
Those fragments of words received in childhood, the subtle interactions witnessed, these are imprinted in the mind over and over again. These hazy yet real fragments serve as warm retrospection and self-support during the growth process.

“Time is an Illusion Itself”
The growth of a person and the rise and fall of a city interweave with each other, their changes mutually confirming each other in time. We collectively experience sunrise and sunset, moving forward in the cyclical alternation of day and night, time is an illusion itself.

“Never, Ever”
About longing and the complex feelings toward hometown, two forces pulling in opposite directions. The impulse to escape and the warmth of attachment compete with each other, forming an inseparable emotional bond that becomes an ineffable yet unreleasable presence in life.

“Reverse”
Using the card game UNO to allude to human survival rules, exploring people’s lifestyle and survival state in society, what we possess, how we view everything we have, and how to realize its potential value.

“From Never Wanting to Refuse to Being Unable to Retain”
From never wanting to refuse to being unable to retain, like objects inside and outside a bottle that are highly attractive yet difficult to grasp. Longing for the warmth that intimate relationships bring, yet fearing the potential harm that may follow, such complex emotions weave into an inescapable predicament in interpersonal relationships.

About the Creative Process and Exhibition Layout

Supervisor’s Comments

Student Zhang Xinyi’s graduation painting demonstrates refined artistic language and clear themes. During her three years of graduate study, she continuously explored and experimented, showing strong independent research capabilities. Student Xinyi applied the research findings from her thesis “Research on Narrative Elements in Edward Hopper’s Paintings” to organize her graduation creative path and integrated her unique personal artistic expression.

—Associate Professor Zhang Shanshan, Department of Painting