Xiaowen Bao is a candidate for a Master’s degree at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She got her MEcon and worked for several years in the financial services industry in Beijing. In order to find passion in her daily work, she decided to redirect her energy and pursue fashion design as a career path, and earned a diploma at the Beijing Institute of Fashion and Technology. Since developing her work further at SAIC, her interdisciplinary practice has evolved, and blurs the boundary of fashion design and art. Xiaowen’s keen perspective and personal experiences frame her observations and reflections on contemporary happenings. Captivated by the irrationality of humans, Xiaowen focusses her work on the gamut of individual choices in society, and ambiguity in human nature. Her work has been featured in the group exhibition: we are our own healers. we are our own medicine, organized by the Wellness Center of SAIC.
Untitled, 2023, leather, films, yarns, ribbons, servos, and wires, photo by James Prinz
Untitled, 2023, Organza, cotton, and meshes, 20 x 30 in., photo by James Prinz. Model: Veronika Kapetiy
Untitled, 2024, metal rings and yarns
Untitled, 2023, leather, films, yarns, ribbons, servos, and wires, photo by James Prinz
Untitled, 2023, Organza, cotton, and meshes, 20 x 30 in., photo by James Prinz
I use chainmail to depict the duality of rules and rebels, machinery and life. When thinking about chainmail, people often consider protection. But why do we need protection? In what situations do people wear chainmail? My remaking of chainmail in this project showcases that chainmail is a violent symbol used by both sides in a conflict – the authorities and the revolutionaries, those who set the rules and those who challenge the rules. I would like, however, to emphasize the organic characteristics of humankind to contrast this machinery, and to highlight the potential for rules to be changed. That potential is represented by my use of chainmail, dangerous as it might be.
Chainmail is constructed following certain rules, but it also has potential for change. I demonstrate this by using motors to make these changes, physically moving the chainmail from a geometric and predictable structure to a more organic and spontaneous shape. My chainmails are mainly made of organza, yarns, and leather. I intentionally make them soft and light to weaken the protective feeling typically conveyed by chainmail, making them fragile. I grind plant residues into the chainmail materials, mimicking fossilization. The materials I use are not only metallic and synthetic, but also organic. The contrast between cold machinery and vivid organicity reveals humans’ status as half machine and half life.