SOLO EXHIBITION · SHANGHAI · 2026
Ferry Port
and Succession
渡口与相续
On the body, consciousness,
and the gestures of care.
Images in transition.
Layered imagery, blurred figures and religious symbolism draw on the Tibetan Buddhist concept of bardo—the intermediate state between death and rebirth. The photographs explore transition, attachment and continuity.
At the threshold
of body and consciousness.
What remains when a body changes—and what does it mean to care for another person at the end of life?
Drawing on three field research trips to Tibet, this solo exhibition brings photography, installation and moving image into conversation with Buddhist understandings of mindstream and the transition between life and death.
Silver sculpted heads, screens and layered photographic images approach the body as a temporary dwelling. Across the gallery, questions of consciousness and mortality meet the ordinary gestures of care.
- Artist
- Yanzhi (Thea) Xiao
- Curator
- Wu Bo / 吴博
- Location
- M50 Creative Park, Shanghai
- Date
- September 23–29, 2026
A temporary
dwelling.
Silver sculpted heads rest on a wooden pallet among metal supports, screens and exposed cables. Their cold surfaces evoke a bodily shell and the absence of the consciousness that once inhabited it.
Consciousness
in motion.
A record of the moving-image work as projected in the exhibition space.
Works in conversation.
Photography, sculpture and screens share one space.
M50 Creative Park, Shanghai · September 2026
Yanzhi (Thea) Xiao
A student and artist in Shanghai exploring consciousness, mortality and care across art, research and lived experience.
My interests span psychology, neuroscience, and global and public health. Through visual art, I explore questions that also arise in my fieldwork and research: how people understand the self, how cultures approach death, and how care can preserve connection.
My fieldwork in Tibet and Yunnan examines cultural perspectives on death and end-of-life care. Alongside this work, I study EEG-based brain networks in Alzheimer’s disease and participate in community care. This archive brings together the artistic side of that inquiry.
Tibet
Field research on end-of-life care, death practices and Tibetan Buddhist perspectives.
Yunnan
Life-and-death education fieldwork among Dai and Blang communities.
Neuroscience
EEG functional connectivity and spectral graph analysis in Alzheimer’s disease research.