CUI YUXUAN 

Hauntology, Mourning, Land Melancholy

  1. Vestige of Hsinking, After the Illusion Fades 迷梦幻灭后
  2. Divided Spaces, Dissolved Orders
  3. Deconstruct the “Tools”
  4. Lost, Lost, Lost  失，失，失
  5. Wuchang五常, Wuchang无常
  6. I’ve Never Heard the Swan Song 我从未听过天鹅挽歌
  7. Deferred Echoes Inside the Bell 但余钟磬音
  8. Drawn in Captivity: Walking through H.J.D de Fremery’s sketches 囚中途绘

Space, Storytelling, Installation

  1. What you will  第十二夜
  2. Love Me Tender, Bite Me True 
  3. Trespass 飞（非）地烟花
  4. 溯流 Go Upstream
  5. Jiakong, Jiakong 
  6. -Borderline as Storyline- 

Info/Bio

Instagram


©2026 Cui Yuxuan

2022-2023 Sheer curtains, voyage log books, video installation 9’ 2’’, digital printing, blankets, cushions, cat bed, found porcelain cat
This work is based on a fictional voyage log the artist wrote featuring a female sailor accompanied only by her feline companion, Benjamin. Inspired by the journals of Captain Matthew Flinders describing his friendship with his ship cat Trim, Yuxuan has reimagined her own adventures. She leaves the attributes of masculinity, patriarchy, and colonial conquest behind and attends to the absence of women in these archives. From a female perspective, she recounts the bond formed with Benjamin through their shared experience of “escape” and rewrites their destiny on the sea. Benjamin becomes her closest, most dependable companion, with whom she shares time, space, memories and kinship.

In crafting these narratives, Yuxuan often returned to a common Chinese phrase “同舟共济” meaning to sail alongside someone even in the face of hardship, towards a shared fate. This expression promotes sentiments of trust, solidarity and companionship that she aspires to in her rapport with Benjamin. Both the voyage and the relationship challenge her to seek true understanding, unity and connection, beyond even her own species.

She wonders if it’s just a coincidence words like relationship, friendship, companionship and kinship all end in ship?





                                             


       




           











With a feline companion by her side, the artist creates a space aboard an imaginary ship, sailing towards an unknown destination. As the audience enters into a simulation of the artist’s voyage log, an invitation is made to sail together through physical movements and whispered language. Through this journey, the audience is offered a glimpse of the resilience and interdependence shared by Yuxuan and her companion. As the artist and the audience move through the space together, they are transported to a world of exploration and self-care, where the body becomes a vessel for exploring the depths and unknown mysteries of connection.