Residual is a material extension of the Until It Stops series, shifting focus from the internal mechanics of cyclical systems to the cooled aftermath of their operation.
Using marine life as its primary visual elements, the work presents organisms that were once indispensable functional components of complex life systems, now stripped from their interface positions and reduced to pure material remnants.
Residual aims to construct a moment of archaeology, allowing us to examine how interfaces—continuously worn down and replaced to sustain a structure’s operation—ultimately cease functioning and persist as purely physical entities.
Title: Residual
Year: 2026
Medium: Ceramics, metal supports, glass fish tanks, etc
Dimensions: 120cm*100cm*70cm
Collection: collection of the artist
Year: 2026
Medium: Ceramics, metal supports, glass fish tanks, etc
Dimensions: 120cm*100cm*70cm
Collection: collection of the artist
Until It Stops
Title: Until It Stops
Year: 2025
Medium: metal tube, clay, bones, fishhooks, etc.
Dimensions: 35cm*30cm*40cm
Collection: collection of the artist
The work Until It Stops takes the lower jawbone as its core structure. Here, the jaw is not regarded as a fragment of the body or evidence of violence, but as a highly functional component: biting, bearing weight, and engaging in repetitive motion.
Raw meat is hung on an iron hook, which is connected to a set of continuous reciprocating piston devices. The pistons simulate the process of swallowing and vomiting at a steady and calm rhythm. This mechanical cycle points to the state after such a structure has been internalized: when explicit commands disappear, control does not end but is embedded in the body's own operation in a more covert way, never stopping.
This mechanical process serves as a precise metaphor for the subject-less power structure prevalent in contemporary society. This structure disciplines individuals into standardized units within it, termed "Residual." Residual possesses a dual, contradictory nature: it is both the essential interface that connects and transmits commands for the system, and the sacrificial part pre-designated to be consumed and worn down first to sustain the system's perpetual operation. The calm reciprocation of the installation thus becomes an eternal metabolism—continuously wearing down the Recital, while perpetually ready to replace it with a new copy.
Until It Stops exposes the automated logic of this self-compulsion: within an anonymous structure, we are both the indispensable interface for its functioning and the material destined to be eroded by its endless operation.
Raw meat is hung on an iron hook, which is connected to a set of continuous reciprocating piston devices. The pistons simulate the process of swallowing and vomiting at a steady and calm rhythm. This mechanical cycle points to the state after such a structure has been internalized: when explicit commands disappear, control does not end but is embedded in the body's own operation in a more covert way, never stopping.
This mechanical process serves as a precise metaphor for the subject-less power structure prevalent in contemporary society. This structure disciplines individuals into standardized units within it, termed "Residual." Residual possesses a dual, contradictory nature: it is both the essential interface that connects and transmits commands for the system, and the sacrificial part pre-designated to be consumed and worn down first to sustain the system's perpetual operation. The calm reciprocation of the installation thus becomes an eternal metabolism—continuously wearing down the Recital, while perpetually ready to replace it with a new copy.
Until It Stops exposes the automated logic of this self-compulsion: within an anonymous structure, we are both the indispensable interface for its functioning and the material destined to be eroded by its endless operation.
Yichen Zhao
Born in Beijing, China
Currently based in London, UK
Education
University of art London – Chelsea College of Arts
MA Fine Art (in progress)
2025~2026, London, UK
Beijing University of Technology
BA Sculpture
2021~ 2025, Beijing, China
Selected Group Exhibitions & Projects
2025 Boundary Point- Participated in the Yishanhu Museum, Suzhou, China
2025 Boundary Point - Participated in the “Zeng Zhushao Sculpture Art Exhibition”，Datong Sculpture Museum, China
2024 Guardian - Fu Rui Zodiac Art Invitational Exhibition (Year of the Long), China
2023 More than a piece paper -“Momentum” Emerging Artists Exhibition
Awards & Recognition
Boundary Point - Outstanding Sculpture by Chinese College Graduates, Bronze, 2025
A Birdsong Coming from the Ashes - ARC Design Award (Netherlands), Bronze, 2024
Arc – ARC Design Award (Netherlands), Bronze, 2024
Place that i cannot go back to - Japan Concept Art Design Award, Bronze, 2024
The Weight of Gaze - Hong Kong Contemporary Design Award, Bronze, 2023
Urban Artificial Lake Water Quality Visualization Design - UK Ecological Design Award, Silver, 2023
Pure - The 5th Contemporary Design Award for College Student in Hong Kong, Silver, 2022
Research Statement
Yichen Zhao’s practice investigates the operational logic of contemporary power structures through mechanical systems, biological metaphors, and material transformation.
In her work, the body is not treated as a site of emotional expression, but as a functional interface embedded within larger structures. By simulating processes such as swallowing, circulation, erosion, and replacement, she examines how individuals are standardized into functional units within systemic frameworks and ultimately reduced to what she terms the “residual” — simultaneously indispensable and perpetually replaceable.
Zhao’s installations are structured around cyclical mechanisms. These cycles reveal a calm yet persistent automated logic: systems sustain themselves through continuous wear and renewal. What appears stable is, in fact, a metabolically ongoing process of consumption.
Her research operates at the intersection of sculptural practice, systems theory, and socio-structural analysis. She is concerned with how structures embed themselves within bodies, how subjectivity becomes procedural, and how repetition transforms living entities into replaceable components.
Her work raises the following questions:
When participation becomes consumption, where is the boundary?
Does the structure really stop, or does it merely replace the objects it consumes continuously?