“Metamorphosis”
Concept | In a family that expects the best solution for all her circumstances, she questions her identity enveloped in the ideal role that is being expected all the time. The truth is, overwhelming expectation built a human shell on her, and it is devoid of individual character. The incarnation of expectation shifted her into standard human, namely, average person. Through sculpture and garments, she realizes self-consciousness, the creature that really she is, with limbs out of control and incoherent shades. Her work tends to magnify pressures underneath unconscious expectations, and encourages people to find out more self-fantasies excluding the identity of being a rational human.
Bio | Yafei Shen is a fashion designer and digital artist in Chicago. In 2018, she completed the Master of Design in Fashion, Body and Garment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She delivers a concept deals with expectations placed on individuals that shift people’s reactions, experiences, and identities. Inspired by family parenthood and subtle pressure underneath overwhelming expectations, she takes confrontation between her families’ ideal role for her and her true identification into her works. Her research heavily focuses on emotional fluctuation and psychic transformation of people that is associated with interaction from others. By observing relevance between people’s spiritual shift and physical response to expectation, Yafei confronts the delicate transition of interpersonal relationship and personal tension through her work in the realms of installation, light mapping and garment design.