Yixuan Xia

About

I am interested in exploring and reflecting on social phenomena and using them as a medium for my artistic expression. My projects question conventions and etiquette. I have designed a set of peculiar tableware through different objects on the table, as a vehicle for my expression to challenge the boundaries of the user’s etiquette. I have explored the idea of perfection and completeness, and I have rebelled against the current dining standards. Through dexterous structural transformations, the work presents different purposes of use, allowing people in the dining environment to make their own choices, and reflecting on the rationality and necessity of standard etiquette.

I play hide-and-seek on the dining table by integrating the basic function and shape of the cutlery with the rest of the table decor. The cutlery is hidden in patterns or removable structures, and one can only access the cutlery by destroying the carefully arranged table.

My work invites and challenges adults who have already learned the dining etiquette, and is a rebellion against traditional dining etiquette. I incorporate unacceptable behaviors of traditional etiquette into my use of tableware in the form of a game, where I integrate the tableware with the table setting, and let the tableware blend with the details that are valued by those who seek a sense of ritual, and at the same time, let people only break the rules of their own original etiquette to be able to Dine and enjoy a feast of the absurd. Challenging the Limits of Conventional Etiquette.

The use of this set requires the breaking of routines and objects, and the acquisition of hidden tableware through destruction, with the aim of making people think about what we can lose if we go overboard with our dining rituals.