Skip to content

HE FA / CROSSINGS

Crossings

Start from a work. Follow a gesture, a material or a difference into another period.

These are reciprocal curatorial comparisons made in 2026. They connect specific forms and working conditions, without claiming direct influence or linear development. Proposals, historical records and collaborative credits retain their documented status; either end can be used to revisit the differences.

Read the crossings

Each connection leads back to both works.

  1. Shixiang’s dark stage, with a large-format camera and lighting at its centre

    Distance and looking

    What follows a portrait

    Large Portraits / PortraitsShixiang

    Large Portraits places detail pages after a complete portrait; Shixiang follows photography with viewing and expression. One changes the distance of reading an image, while the other places the return to a photograph within another meeting.

    2010 / Photography, archival pigment prints
    2019–2020 / Photography theatre

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageWorks & details ↗

      The portfolio places the complete portrait in the He Fa group alongside three details: nose, forehead and hair, and eye.

    2. Period documentEight and a half acts. ↗

      The 2020 project text sets out photography in odd acts and viewing and expression in even acts within an eight-and-a-half-act structure; this is the method announced at the time.

    Continue from this work ↗
  2. YourTube installation with multiple screens, exposed cables and linked seating

    Distance and looking

    One face, dispersed attention

    Large Portraits / PortraitsYourTube

    Large Portraits presents each person through a whole image and details, while YourTube disperses imagery across screens. Both allocate attention, but a viewer cannot survey them through the same kind of sequence.

    2010 / Photography, archival pigment prints
    2018 / Multi-screen video installation

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentFrom the portrait to its details ↗

      The grouping and captions of the Large Portraits PDF list four sets of full portraits and details; names follow the original captions only.

    2. Period documentInstallation instructions and playback ↗

      The saved installation instructions document switching on individual screens, media players and MP4 selection, and preserve the arrangement of screens, tubing and six connected stools.

    Continue from this work ↗
  3. Hamlet’s Mirror: a performer and a projected body in front of a screen

    Body and presence

    Bodies that do not fit seamlessly

    Four-Dimensional PeopleHamlet’s Mirror

    Four-Dimensional People retains bodily displacements through rectangular photographs; Hamlet’s Mirror returns projection to a living body. The former fixes its seams, while obstruction in the latter happens anew through performance.

    2010 / Photography, light box
    2015 / Moving image and performance

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      Pages 36–37 of the early portfolio contain this series; in the first image, the body, chair and objects are assembled from misaligned rectangular photographs.

    2. Artist’s statementProjection and performance ↗

      The portfolio statement identifies the interaction of performer, large screen and projection, grounding the comparison of bodily obstruction and images projected back onto a body.

    Continue from this work ↗
  4. Vertical Personal Chronicle PHA graphic with six coloured text blocks

    Keeping and losing

    How many fragments make a person

    Four-Dimensional PeoplePersonal Chronicle / PHA

    Four-Dimensional People divides gestures and surroundings into photographic fragments; Personal Chronicle connects a narrated past with ambitions. Both organize fragments of a person without thereby standing in for an entire life.

    2010 / Photography, light box
    2023 / Interview archives, collective creation and public documentation

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      Pages 36–37 of the early portfolio contain this series; in the first image, the body, chair and objects are assembled from misaligned rectangular photographs.

    2. Period documentHow the project is structured ↗

      The 2023 text Theatre and Fear proposes a two-to-five-hour personal interview, retained records and subsequent project initiation.

    Continue from this work ↗
  5. A person beside a wall with their shadow

    Body and presence

    When the body’s background returns

    IllusionCocoon

    Illusion removes a clearly defined ground and support against white; Cocoon’s records retain rehearsal, falls and fatigue. Bodies become visible in both, while their conditions of production appear in contrasting ways.

    2011 / Photography, light box
    2020 / Dance theatre and collective production

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      The body in the first portfolio image is set against white, with no support visible; the photographs are not labelled as successive stages of motion.

    2. Period documentHow the work took shape ↗

      He Fa’s text of 29 October 2020 and the November conversations preserve production records of recruitment, continuous rehearsals and bodily strain.

    Continue from this work ↗
  6. Documentation of Iceberg

    Spaces transformed

    Between blankness and crowding

    IllusionIceberg

    Illusion separates poses from a setting through a white background; Iceberg places performers and spectators in a small office. Spatial cues recede in one, while obstruction and proximity become unavoidable conditions in the other.

    2011 / Photography, light box
    2021–2022 / Intimate live theatre

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      The body in the first portfolio image is set against white, with no support visible; the photographs are not labelled as successive stages of motion.

    2. Event recordProject statement ↗

      The event record specifies 1 January 2022, an office, eight makers and fifteen audience members, including crowding and obstruction as conditions of viewing.

    Continue from this work ↗
  7. The title A Common Festival and event details overlap in a colourful looping poster

    Spaces transformed

    How a place is rearranged

    SanhetanWorld Question Center: Hangzhou Residency and A Common Festival

    Sanhetan reconnects photographs of snow, amusement structures and waterside scenes; the Hangzhou residency archive retains cancellation and relocation. One rearranges space within images, while the other has to bring people together again.

    2010 / Photography, archival pigment print
    2022 / Residency, collective rehearsal, interactive performance and work in public space

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageWorks & details ↗

      The three images show snowy trees and a watercourse, amusement structures in snow, and boats with a waterside pavilion; rectangular photographic seams run throughout.

    2. Period documentKeeping changes within the work’s record ↗

      The April proposal, May relocation notice and July account separately record plans, cancellation and relocation, and later recollection, retaining their distinct event status.

    Continue from this work ↗
  8. A film still from Human Surrender

    Keeping and losing

    Overlap does more than add information

    The Forbidden CityHuman Surrender / Shoot Self with You

    The displaced overlays of The Forbidden City resist one stable instant; Human Surrender organizes collective filming into a film. Both hold multiple acts of looking, but planar overlap and editing sequence are not interchangeable.

    2009–2012 / Photography, archival pigment print
    2023–2024 / Film, rehearsal, live performance

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      Displaced superimpositions form the architectural outlines; the original portfolio does not specify the number of exposures or processing algorithm.

    2. Period documentFrom a borrowed camera to shifting production roles ↗

      The production account of 18 August 2023 specifically records shifts among photography, performance, directing and documentation in collective creation.

    Continue from this work ↗
  9. A repeated pattern of blue line figures on white

    Versions of a work

    How fragments occupy time

    FragmentsSangou GIF Theatre

    Fragments spreads image strips across a plane, while Sangou GIF Theatre places small actions in loops. One lets the eye choose where to stay; the other repeatedly returns an action during that stay.

    2012 / Photography, light box
    Listed in a 2016 proposal; public images and texts in 2022 / Online images, looping animation and text

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      The complete horizontal image consists of dense horizontal strips, with divisions and seams remaining visible.

    2. Period documentBuilding a theatre from a virtual character ↗

      The 2016 proposal jointly signed by He Fa and Zhang Aoshuang lists Sangou among FakingAosome’s works and describes virtual characters, GIF drawings and a collaged theatre.

    Continue from this work ↗
  10. Fafalish installation: printed paper runs along a library wall above computer workstations

    Language in transit

    Reading after something is divided

    FragmentsFafalish

    Fragments retains breaks between image strips, while Fafalish juxtaposes successive transcriptions. Both make seams readable: one rearranges visual positions, the other changes correspondences between sound and written meaning.

    2012 / Photography, light box
    2017 / Language, video, printed text

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      The complete horizontal image consists of dense horizontal strips, with divisions and seams remaining visible.

    2. Period documentChinese poem ↗

      The CCA exhibition statement supplies six transformations: Chinese poetry, literal English translation, accented reading, pinyin transcription, Chinese rewriting and machine translation into English.

    Continue from this work ↗
  11. YourTube installation with multiple screens, exposed cables and linked seating

    Spaces transformed

    Frames separate and connect

    YiguiYourTube

    Yigui juxtaposes distinct divisions with soft overlays; YourTube retains each screen’s border. The former compares organization within images, while the latter places separate displays within a shared viewing space.

    2009 / Photography, light box
    2018 / Multi-screen video installation

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      Two images sit together: one uses distinct divisions, the other soft superimposition; the portfolio does not state a developmental sequence between them.

    2. Period documentInstallation instructions and playback ↗

      The saved installation instructions document switching on individual screens, media players and MP4 selection, and preserve the arrangement of screens, tubing and six connected stools.

    Continue from this work ↗
  12. Untitled by He Fa

    Versions of a work

    Do not prearrange a version’s ending

    YiguiUntitled

    Yigui’s two images are not assigned a sequence by the source; Untitled retains the artist’s account of stopping after repeated rejection. Juxtaposition does not establish development, and a surviving image need not mean its problems were solved.

    2009 / Photography, light box
    2012–2014 / Archival inkjet print

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      Two images sit together: one uses distinct divisions, the other soft superimposition; the portfolio does not state a developmental sequence between them.

    2. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement directly records prolonged making, repeated rejection and eventual abandonment; stopping does not prove that the problem was resolved.

    Continue from this work ↗
  13. Complete floor plan and spatial description for the black corridor proposal

    Spaces transformed

    An eye travels; a body passes

    Shunan Bamboo SeaBlack Corridor of Spatiotemporal Echoes / Spatial Proposal

    Shunan Bamboo Sea draws the eye along a narrow vertical image; the Black Corridor proposal imagines bodily passage through a required route. Both extend viewing, while an existing image remains distinct from a spatial plan whose realization is unverified.

    2010 / Photography, light box
    2016 (proposal document) / Proposal for spatial division and a multisensory passage · Proposals

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      Photographic fragments accumulate along the long axis of a narrow vertical image, directing attention between its upper and lower ends.

    2. Period documentSpatiotemporal echoes ↗

      The original proposal describes the corridor as a required passage and proposes multisensory temporal and spatial experience; it remains a proposal with implementation unverified.

    Continue from this work ↗
  14. The white spiral body of Gewu Studio’s Wave Pen

    Spaces transformed

    Which movement produces the flow

    Shunan Bamboo SeaGewu Studio / Products and Spatial Experiments

    Shunan Bamboo Sea accumulates photographs vertically; the Clear Breeze Screen proposal uses fifty-five curved layers in relation to viewing position. One moves the eye; the other proposes changing relations among curves through bodily movement.

    2010 / Photography, light box
    2012–2013 / Parametric design, products, 3D printing, spatial proposals

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      Photographic fragments accumulate along the long axis of a narrow vertical image, directing attention between its upper and lower ends.

    2. Period documentQingfeng Fuping: a view that changes with the body ↗

      Pages 3, 6, 11, 14–17 and 20 of the Qingfeng Screen proposal document the sea-view screen, 55 surfaces and changing viewing positions; renderings do not establish construction.

    Continue from this work ↗
  15. DOCUMENT RECORD

    Versions of a work

    Possible extension is not completed extension

    Appearance Arises from the MindLong Long Ago / Project Proposal

    The thesis discussion of Appearance Arises from the Mind imagines an extended scroll; Long Long Ago proposes rotating through neighbourhoods. Both open directions for expansion, but projected length and programme scale are not completed totals.

    2010 / Photography, light box
    2017 / Collective art project proposal · Proposals

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statementThe artist’s account in the 2012 thesis ↗

      The 2012 thesis Looking for Shanshui Photography describes cropping, scaling and subjective arrangement, and proposes possible extension into a long scroll; the length is hypothetical.

    2. Period documentWorking together in the proposal ↗

      The original proposal envisages artists from different neighbourhoods taking turns to host activities; recruitment and the year-long schedule are plans, not completion records.

    Continue from this work ↗
  16. Wu by He Fa

    Rules and choices

    Composition precedes freedom

    Appearance Arises from the MindWu

    Appearance Arises from the Mind explicitly uses cropping, scaling and subjective composition; Wu places free growth within a familiar landscape layout. Together they reveal different authorial choices rather than a natural progression from control to its absence.

    2010 / Photography, light box
    2013–2014 / Archival inkjet print

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statementThe artist’s account in the 2012 thesis ↗

      The 2012 thesis Looking for Shanshui Photography describes cropping, scaling and subjective arrangement, and proposes possible extension into a long scroll; the length is hypothetical.

    2. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement retains both the choice of a familiar landscape composition and the declaration of free growth; it does not establish the absence of artistic decisions.

    Continue from this work ↗
  17. Complete narrative board for Time Canyon, with text branches and reference images

    Spaces transformed

    Roads and passages within a body

    Inside and Outside a VehicleTime Canyon / The Disappearing Tail

    Inside and Outside a Vehicle places roads and vehicles in repeated rows; Time Canyon proposes narrative through bodily passages. Both handle passage and segmentation, but photographic records and an imagined experience are different kinds of evidence.

    2009 / Photography, light box
    2016 (proposal document) / Proposal for spatial narrative, performance and a multisensory installation · Proposals

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      The first image arranges roads, vehicles and nearby buildings in repeated horizontal rows.

    2. Period documentThe body as a passage through time ↗

      The original PDF and mind map organize a sensory journey through digestive passages, birth and death; they establish a conception, not a built performance.

    Continue from this work ↗
  18. DOCUMENT RECORD

    Keeping and losing

    How a record becomes material again

    Inside and Outside a VehicleRomance Theatre

    Inside and Outside a Vehicle reorders city fragments; Liang Yin’s Romance Theatre proposal feeds records of interactions back into a script. One changes photographic positions; the other must also face participants’ willingness to continue relating.

    2009 / Photography, light box
    2022 / Continuing workshops, relational practice and documentation

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      The first image arranges roads, vehicles and nearby buildings in repeated horizontal rows.

    2. Period documentFrom proposal to continuing practice ↗

      Liang Yin’s November 2022 call proposes recording relationships, developing a script from the recordings and performance by participants; He Fa’s later account is dated separately.

    Continue from this work ↗
  19. Four screens forming a square, with audience areas marked in pink and performance areas in green

    Spaces transformed

    How multiple images arrange viewing

    Field of ViewHamlet’s Mirror / Four-screen CAFAM Proposal

    Field of View juxtaposes city views in rectangles; the CAFAM four-screen proposal places viewers between screens. The move from planar divisions to enclosure changes viewing positions, while realization of the proposal remains unverified.

    2009 / Photography, light box
    2016 / Proposal for four-screen projection, live performance and real-time video · Proposals

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      The first image places urban views in rectangular rows, retaining differences of angle and position between adjacent blocks.

    2. Period documentFrom one screen to four ↗

      The jointly signed proposal of 5 September 2016 surrounds the space with four screens and distinguishes audience and performance areas by colour; the evidence is a proposal and equipment arrangement.

    Continue from this work ↗
  20. Colourful handmade puppets and branch-like scenery in a dark room

    Working together

    How tabletop things compose a world

    GatheringHappiness Kingdom

    Gathering assembles tables, people and rooms into surrounding images; Happiness Kingdom develops character relations from handmade figures. Both organize worlds through concrete things, while montage and shared object-making retain different authors.

    2009 / Photography, light box
    2023 / Collective puppet-making, role play and an evolving theatrical environment

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      In the first image, table, food, people and room fragments form an encircling composition, with directions changed by the collage.

    2. Period documentEntering a role through making ↗

      Public materials from April–May 2023 describe collective puppet making, assigned personalities and role recruitment; individual roles and texts retain their own authors.

    Continue from this work ↗
  21. YourTube installation with multiple screens, exposed cables and linked seating

    Spaces transformed

    One ring, different centres

    GatheringYourTube

    Gathering’s surrounding compositions reorient objects; YourTube joins six seats into a ring with tubing. Adjacency within an image and proximity between bodies do not guarantee that everyone looks toward the same place.

    2009 / Photography, light box
    2018 / Multi-screen video installation

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      In the first image, table, food, people and room fragments form an encircling composition, with directions changed by the collage.

    2. Period documentInstallation instructions and playback ↗

      The saved installation instructions document switching on individual screens, media players and MP4 selection, and preserve the arrangement of screens, tubing and six connected stools.

    Continue from this work ↗
  22. The white spiral body of Gewu Studio’s Wave Pen

    Language in transit

    A sun changes its position

    CentralGewu Studio / Products and Spatial Experiments

    Central moves a relief’s sun into photography; Gewu’s trophy proposal combines sun, ploughshare and a V shape. Both transfer motifs, but one has a documented finished work while the other remains a studio design draft.

    2013 / Archival inkjet print
    2012–2013 / Parametric design, products, 3D printing, spatial proposals

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement explicitly begins with a relief encountered while travelling and places the sun among mountains; this is the artist’s stated compositional decision.

    2. Period documentJinhua Award medal and trophy proposal ↗

      Pages 1–9 of the Golden Plough Award draft combine a ploughshare, sun and V shape; the draft supplies no selection or manufacture record.

    Continue from this work ↗
  23. Yellow P4 Screenings lettering on a black ground

    Rules and choices

    Changing the basis of an order

    CocktailP4 Screenings: Reflections Between Us

    Cocktail orders photographs by file size; P4 Screenings rotates selections through four themes. Both establish ordering conditions, but one forms a static image while the other also lets participants propose their own moving images.

    2013 / Archival inkjet print
    2020 / Screenings, collective discussion and an ongoing participatory practice

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement explicitly makes JPEG file size the sorting criterion and describes settling and floating; numerical sorting is not equated with judgement of people.

    2. Period documentFrom screening to self-screening ↗

      The September 2020 rules specify four rotating film themes, participants’ own videos and the decision not to record discussions.

    Continue from this work ↗
  24. A seated group with the overlaid title Messages from the Deliberation Panel

    Rules and choices

    What kind of outcome does a rule produce

    CocktailFinal Solution

    Cocktail lets file values determine position; Final Solution uses questioning and votes to decide which characters remain. Both delegate judgments to procedures, but ordering images and producing consequences for performers cannot be treated as equivalent.

    2013 / Archival inkjet print
    2021 / Participatory theatre, a deliberation game and process documentation

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement explicitly makes JPEG file size the sorting criterion and describes settling and floating; numerical sorting is not equated with judgement of people.

    2. Period documentGiving the assembly the decision ↗

      The May 2021 call and He Fa’s July account document questioning, voting, character departure and transcription with reflection; version differences remain explicit.

    Continue from this work ↗
  25. Fafalish installation: printed paper runs along a library wall above computer workstations

    Language in transit

    Materials shape how attention stays

    Lose losingFafalish

    Lose losing specifies any projection-suitable material; Fafalish combines paper texts with listening apparatus. Surfaces participate in expression in both, but the former’s still records cannot establish its projection rhythm.

    2014 / Any surface suitable for projection
    2017 / Language, video, printed text

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentFrom photographs to a projectable image ↗

      The portfolio medium entry specifies any projectable material, with dimensions determined by the venue; the record supplies no screening duration.

    2. Period documentTranslation does not return meaning intact. ↗

      The CCA exhibition statement documents printed texts, the Kunlun video and listening/reading devices exhibited together.

    Continue from this work ↗
  26. The title A Common Festival and event details overlap in a colourful looping poster

    Spaces transformed

    Scale follows a venue; venues meet reality

    Lose losingWorld Question Center: Hangzhou Residency and A Common Festival

    Lose losing’s record leaves dimensions dependent on the exhibition space; the Hangzhou residency retains cancellation and relocation. One preserves formal adaptability, while the other records actual spatial changes affecting shared production.

    2014 / Any surface suitable for projection
    2022 / Residency, collective rehearsal, interactive performance and work in public space

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentFrom photographs to a projectable image ↗

      The portfolio medium entry specifies any projectable material, with dimensions determined by the venue; the record supplies no screening duration.

    2. Period documentKeeping changes within the work’s record ↗

      The April proposal, May relocation notice and July account separately record plans, cancellation and relocation, and later recollection, retaining their distinct event status.

    Continue from this work ↗
  27. Illusion: a bodily gesture photographed against a white background

    Body and presence

    A surface appears; a body is seen

    Touch touchingIllusion

    Touch touching retains a medium specification of projection-suitable surfaces; Illusion presents bodies against white in light boxes. Both make images visible through light, but their titles establish neither touch interaction nor a continuous movement sequence.

    2014 / Any surface suitable for projection
    2011 / Photography, light box

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentFrom photographs to a projectable image ↗

      The portfolio records any projectable material and venue-dependent dimensions; the title alone does not establish touch interaction.

    2. Work imageImages and presentation ↗

      The body in the first portfolio image is set against white, with no support visible; the photographs are not labelled as successive stages of motion.

    Continue from this work ↗
  28. Participants drawing together on a black stage floor

    Language in transit

    Paper and light do different work

    Touch touchingPaper Screening

    Touch touching assigns images to projection-suitable materials; Lisa’s Paper Screening brings drawings into spoken accounts. Both use supporting surfaces, but projection and participants’ own making are not interchangeable.

    2014 / Any surface suitable for projection
    2020 / Collective drawing, live narration and workshops

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentFrom photographs to a projectable image ↗

      The portfolio records any projectable material and venue-dependent dimensions; the title alone does not establish touch interaction.

    2. Period documentBringing paper onto the stage ↗

      The November 2020 project text and 26 November report record Lisa-led drawing, presenting drawings and participants’ responses, with individual authorship retained.

    Continue from this work ↗
  29. A repeated pattern of blue line figures on white

    Versions of a work

    A body need not arrive first

    Hamlet’s MirrorSangou GIF Theatre

    FakingAosome’s Hamlet’s Mirror displaces live bodies and projections; Sangou GIF Theatre organizes loops through virtual figures. The duo explores different theatres, and a preceding physical performance cannot be assumed for the GIF work.

    2015 / Moving image and performance
    Listed in a 2016 proposal; public images and texts in 2022 / Online images, looping animation and text

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statementProjection and performance ↗

      The portfolio statement identifies the interaction of performer, large screen and projection, grounding the comparison of bodily obstruction and images projected back onto a body.

    2. Period documentBuilding a theatre from a virtual character ↗

      The 2016 proposal jointly signed by He Fa and Zhang Aoshuang lists Sangou among FakingAosome’s works and describes virtual characters, GIF drawings and a collaged theatre.

    Continue from this work ↗
  30. Documentation of Iceberg

    Spaces transformed

    Enclosure can be planned or constrained

    Hamlet’s Mirror / Four-screen CAFAM ProposalIceberg

    The CAFAM four-screen proposal distinguishes audience and performance zones in drawings; Iceberg shares limited office space. Both arrange enclosure and spectatorship, but imagined zoning cannot stand in for actual obstruction.

    2016 / Proposal for four-screen projection, live performance and real-time video · Proposals
    2021–2022 / Intimate live theatre

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentFrom one screen to four ↗

      The jointly signed proposal of 5 September 2016 surrounds the space with four screens and distinguishes audience and performance areas by colour; the evidence is a proposal and equipment arrangement.

    2. Event recordProject statement ↗

      The event record specifies 1 January 2022, an office, eight makers and fifteen audience members, including crowding and obstruction as conditions of viewing.

    Continue from this work ↗
  31. A seated group with the overlaid title Messages from the Deliberation Panel

    Body and presence

    How death enters an arrangement

    Time Canyon / The Disappearing TailFinal Solution

    Time Canyon proposes a bodily journey through birth and death; Final Solution prompts judgments through fictional elimination. One is a sensory narrative proposal, while the other has records of procedural practice and reflection.

    2016 (proposal document) / Proposal for spatial narrative, performance and a multisensory installation · Proposals
    2021 / Participatory theatre, a deliberation game and process documentation

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentThe body as a passage through time ↗

      The original PDF and mind map organize a sensory journey through digestive passages, birth and death; they establish a conception, not a built performance.

    2. Period documentGiving the assembly the decision ↗

      The May 2021 call and He Fa’s July account document questioning, voting, character departure and transcription with reflection; version differences remain explicit.

    Continue from this work ↗
  32. Shixiang’s dark stage, with a large-format camera and lighting at its centre

    Spaces transformed

    Who speaks beyond the darkness

    Black Corridor of Spatiotemporal Echoes / Spatial ProposalShixiang

    The Black Corridor proposal plans a required passage to engage the senses; Shixiang moves from conversation to a black stage. Darkness changes conditions in both, but a prescribed experience differs from a meeting where participants retain publication choices.

    2016 (proposal document) / Proposal for spatial division and a multisensory passage · Proposals
    2019–2020 / Photography theatre

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentSpatiotemporal echoes ↗

      The original proposal describes the corridor as a required passage and proposes multisensory temporal and spatial experience; it remains a proposal with implementation unverified.

    2. Period documentMake a portrait. Then face it together. ↗

      The 2020 project introduction records passage from a white room to a black stage and later meetings; publication choice is retained in the same project documentation.

    Continue from this work ↗
  33. DOCUMENT RECORD

    Working together

    Who becomes the starting point

    The Invisible Odyssey / Performance Exhibition ProposalBecoming Wind, Breaking Waves

    The Invisible Odyssey proposes actions involving a thirty-person team; Becoming Wind begins its invitation with Lifeng’s account. Both invite shared creation, but their starting conditions differ: a team arrangement and a person’s wishes.

    2016 / Collaborative performance exhibition proposal · Proposals
    2023 / Personal narrative, collective devising and documentation proposal

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentA proposal concerned with loss of control ↗

      The 2016 proposal aims at loss of control through actions involving a team of thirty; this is the proposal’s premise.

    2. Period documentHow a personal story becomes a shared project ↗

      The 2023 call jointly signed by Lifeng and He Fa starts from Lifeng’s account Ruma and invites collective writing, directing, performance and documentation.

    Continue from this work ↗
  34. Red Duel Club poster with a multicoloured smiling face

    Rules and choices

    The planned bounds of losing control

    The Invisible Odyssey / Performance Exhibition ProposalSaturday Four-Hour Duel Club

    The Invisible Odyssey sets loss of control as a proposed aim; Duel Club operates through a countdown and elimination. Both anticipate unknown outcomes, but actual voting consequences cannot substantiate a proposal whose realization remains unverified.

    2016 / Collaborative performance exhibition proposal · Proposals
    2021–2023 / Interactive theatre, a voting game and a transcript archive

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentA proposal concerned with loss of control ↗

      The 2016 proposal aims at loss of control through actions involving a team of thirty; this is the proposal’s premise.

    2. Period documentTurning the ring into a theatre of judgment ↗

      The call for 23 October 2021 specifies six fighters, a four-hour countdown and five rounds of audience elimination votes; later proposals do not replace this version.

    Continue from this work ↗
  35. DOCUMENT RECORD

    Working together

    One contributor in the credits

    The Great Chain of Being: Planet TrilogyN/A Magazine: Founding Contribution

    Institutional records list He Fa among the artists of The Great Chain of Being, while N/A lists him as a founding contributor. Both establish collaborative positions without assigning him the whole project or an unspecified individual contribution.

    2016 / Collective intermedia project and performative installation
    Date not recorded / Publication collaboration

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentParticipation in the institutional record ↗

      The academy’s official artist list includes He Fa among advanced-study members, establishing collective participation, not individual authorship of the overall project or a specific installation.

    2. Period documentA publication emerging from a course ↗

      Chloe Ghillani’s project page lists Fa He as a founding contributor separately from publisher and editors; it does not identify particular articles.

    Continue from this work ↗
  36. Complete narrative board for Time Canyon, with text branches and reference images

    Versions of a work

    How a plan enters a collective archive

    The Great Chain of Being: Planet TrilogyTime Canyon / The Disappearing Tail

    Time Canyon describes itself as a closing chapter for The Great Chain of Being; institutional records separately confirm He Fa’s collective participation. The sources can be read together without turning the proposal into a verified constructed chapter.

    2016 / Collective intermedia project and performative installation
    2016 (proposal document) / Proposal for spatial narrative, performance and a multisensory installation · Proposals

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentParticipation in the institutional record ↗

      The academy’s official artist list includes He Fa among advanced-study members, establishing collective participation, not individual authorship of the overall project or a specific installation.

    2. Period documentA seventh chapter conceived as an ending ↗

      The original proposal’s title directly describes it as the concluding seventh chapter of Great Chain of Being; this establishes an intended relationship, not implementation.

    Continue from this work ↗
  37. Participants sit in a circle on the floor of P4 Theater’s black-box space

    Working together

    Whose voice appears within a platform

    N/A Magazine: Founding ContributionP4 Theater

    N/A separately credits its publisher, editor and founding contributors; P4 Theater enables different initiators to develop projects. Both gather work by others, while a publication’s division of responsibility differs from the relationships among projects within an ongoing platform.

    Date not recorded / Publication collaboration
    2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentA publication emerging from a course ↗

      Chloe Ghillani’s project page lists Fa He as a founding contributor separately from publisher and editors; it does not identify particular articles.

    2. Later accountEnabling participants to initiate work ↗

      He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship.

    Continue from this work ↗
  38. Yellow P4 Screenings lettering on a black ground

    Keeping and losing

    Recording a review, protecting discussion

    Fa’s reviewP4 Screenings: Reflections Between Us

    The Fa’s review list retains four recordings; P4 Screenings’ September rules explicitly leave discussions unrecorded. Both involve speaking before others, but one preserves multiple videos while the other protects an exchange from being recorded.

    2017 / Documentary video
    2020 / Screenings, collective discussion and an ongoing participatory practice

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentFour recordings ↗

      Fa He Work Sample List lists four Fa’s review recordings, their durations and the date 28 April 2017; the list is not a reconstruction of the entire event.

    2. Period documentFrom screening to self-screening ↗

      The September 2020 rules specify four rotating film themes, participants’ own videos and the decision not to record discussions.

    Continue from this work ↗
  39. Vertical Personal Chronicle PHA graphic with six coloured text blocks

    Keeping and losing

    Facing assessment and initiating a future

    Fa’s reviewPersonal Chronicle / PHA

    Fa’s review preserves an account within assessment recordings; Personal Chronicle connects long interviews to later initiatives. Both turn speech into material, but responding to an assessment and proposing one’s own project are different positions.

    2017 / Documentary video
    2023 / Interview archives, collective creation and public documentation

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statementThe artist’s statement before the review ↗

      The saved English artist statement before advancement review raises artist identity and expression; it is a contemporaneous self-account.

    2. Period documentHow the project is structured ↗

      The 2023 text Theatre and Fear proposes a two-to-five-hour personal interview, retained records and subsequent project initiation.

    Continue from this work ↗
  40. The title A Common Festival and event details overlap in a colourful looping poster

    Spaces transformed

    Taking turns and moving temporarily

    Long Long Ago / Project ProposalWorld Question Center: Hangzhou Residency and A Common Festival

    Long Long Ago proposes rotating gatherings through San Francisco neighbourhoods; the Hangzhou residency experienced recruitment, cancellation and relocation. Shared spaces depend on organization in both, but planned routes and documented changes remain distinct.

    2017 / Collective art project proposal · Proposals
    2022 / Residency, collective rehearsal, interactive performance and work in public space

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentWorking together in the proposal ↗

      The original proposal envisages artists from different neighbourhoods taking turns to host activities; recruitment and the year-long schedule are plans, not completion records.

    2. Period documentKeeping changes within the work’s record ↗

      The April proposal, May relocation notice and July account separately record plans, cancellation and relocation, and later recollection, retaining their distinct event status.

    Continue from this work ↗
  41. Kill the Rose group gathered indoors

    Keeping and losing

    Publication becomes part of the work

    chinesesamericandream / Instagram ThesisKill the Rose: 3P—Watching, Performing, Recording

    The Instagram thesis statement treats an account as the thesis; 3P makes publication during production a rule. Both include public entry points in the work, but the account’s historical posts have not been fully read, so their sequence cannot be supplied.

    2018 / Network-based work, Instagram account, thesis
    2021 / Theatre event, 3P creative observation and exhibition proposal

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statementA thesis located in an account ↗

      The original 2018 Fa He.docx designates an Instagram account as the thesis; historical posts have not been fully read and no posting sequence is supplied.

    2. Period documentA parallel creative process ↗

      He Fa’s signed 3P call requires at least three publications within one month, retained separately from the play’s director, writer and 3P participant lists.

    Continue from this work ↗
  42. Kill the Rose group gathered indoors

    Keeping and losing

    Sometimes recording, sometimes not

    P4 Screenings: Reflections Between UsKill the Rose: 3P—Watching, Performing, Recording

    P4 Screenings’ September rules keep discussion unrecorded; 3P requires at least three publications in a month. An encounter may need preservation or privacy. Together these arrangements make recording a responsibility to choose, rather than an automatic good.

    2020 / Screenings, collective discussion and an ongoing participatory practice
    2021 / Theatre event, 3P creative observation and exhibition proposal

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentFrom screening to self-screening ↗

      The September 2020 rules specify four rotating film themes, participants’ own videos and the decision not to record discussions.

    2. Period documentA parallel creative process ↗

      He Fa’s signed 3P call requires at least three publications within one month, retained separately from the play’s director, writer and 3P participant lists.

    Continue from this work ↗
  43. He Fa’s photograph of Yellow River Counterflow illuminated

    Language in transit

    Images continue into life

    Paper ScreeningGewu Studio / Twelve Water Lamps

    Lisa’s Paper Screening brings drawing into reciprocal accounts; Gewu’s lamps turn research on water paintings toward luminous objects. Images acquire new uses in both, while participant making and studio production retain their different authors.

    2020 / Collective drawing, live narration and workshops
    2012–2013 / Co-creation, 3D printing and product design

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentBringing paper onto the stage ↗

      The November 2020 project text and 26 November report record Lisa-led drawing, presenting drawings and participants’ responses, with individual authorship retained.

    2. Period documentWork and collaboration ↗

      The work and collaboration record documents Twelve Water Lamps as a collaborative studio practice, identifies Ma Yuan’s water paintings as a reference, and records He Fa’s photography, conceptual development and artistic direction.

    Continue from this work ↗
  44. Shixiang’s dark stage, with a large-format camera and lighting at its centre

    Keeping and losing

    Facing something one has left

    Paper ScreeningShixiang

    Paper Screening asks participants to hold up and speak about their drawings; Shixiang returns people to their portraits. A retained image prompts further expression in both, while making a drawing oneself differs from being photographed.

    2020 / Collective drawing, live narration and workshops
    2019–2020 / Photography theatre

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentBringing paper onto the stage ↗

      The November 2020 project text and 26 November report record Lisa-led drawing, presenting drawings and participants’ responses, with individual authorship retained.

    2. Period documentEight and a half acts. ↗

      The 2020 project text sets out photography in odd acts and viewing and expression in even acts within an eight-and-a-half-act structure; this is the method announced at the time.

    Continue from this work ↗
  45. Pre-performance poster for Breaking the Moon announcing December 16 at 19:30, 321 Space, with credits for Li Yaxin, Xu Shuai, He Fa and Sun Jiarui.

    Working together

    How an organizer enters rehearsal

    HallucinationBreaking the Moon

    Accounts of Hallucination record recruitment and organizational intervention; a Breaking the Moon performer describes the supervising producer helping revise a role. Organization occurs within rehearsal too, while each work retains its distinct directing and collaborative credits.

    2020 / Proscenium theatre and production practice
    2023 / Theatre, rehearsal and production archive

    Read the source materials
    1. Later accountFrom Shixiang research to an open call ↗

      The 27 April 2021 account A Seemingly Uncertain Future recalls recruitment, rehearsals and organizer intervention from Shixiang to Hallucination and explicitly records a performance.

    2. Period documentThe supervising producer within collaborative rehearsal ↗

      An actor’s account of 7 December 2023 records an observer role becoming a participant through discussion, with He Fa contributing as supervisor; actor and character remain distinct.

    Continue from this work ↗
  46. Shixiang’s dark stage, with a large-format camera and lighting at its centre

    Working together

    Who arrives beyond the pair

    HallucinationShixiang

    He Fa’s public recollection links the move toward more participants after Shixiang to producing Hallucination. This is a documented project connection, but it does not mean an ensemble play resolved every question raised by the two-person portrait research.

    2020 / Proscenium theatre and production practice
    2019–2020 / Photography theatre

    Read the source materials
    1. Later accountFrom Shixiang research to an open call ↗

      The 27 April 2021 account A Seemingly Uncertain Future recalls recruitment, rehearsals and organizer intervention from Shixiang to Hallucination and explicitly records a performance.

    2. Period documentEight and a half acts. ↗

      The 2020 project text sets out photography in odd acts and viewing and expression in even acts within an eight-and-a-half-act structure; this is the method announced at the time.

    Continue from this work ↗
  47. Untitled by He Fa

    Versions of a work

    Facing a version before stability

    VortexUntitled

    Untitled stops after years of repeated rejection; Vortex’s announcement records members leaving and joining over a month. One ends an individual image’s revision; the other asks an unsettled collective to face a public-performance deadline.

    2022 / North Wind Theatre collective creation
    2012–2014 / Archival inkjet print

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentHow the work took shape ↗

      He Fa’s signed performance text of 3 March 2022 records members leaving and joining during a month, multiple personal difficulties and an eleven-member list.

    2. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement directly records prolonged making, repeated rejection and eventual abandonment; stopping does not prove that the problem was resolved.

    Continue from this work ↗
  48. DOCUMENT RECORD

    Working together

    Different people bring different directions

    VortexBecoming Wind, Breaking Waves

    Vortex brings together difficulties carried by several members; Becoming Wind builds its invitation around Lifeng’s account. Both gather people, but one assembles parallel experiences while the other proposes a shared task from one person’s wish.

    2022 / North Wind Theatre collective creation
    2023 / Personal narrative, collective devising and documentation proposal

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentHow the work took shape ↗

      He Fa’s signed performance text of 3 March 2022 records members leaving and joining during a month, multiple personal difficulties and an eleven-member list.

    2. Period documentHow a personal story becomes a shared project ↗

      The 2023 call jointly signed by Lifeng and He Fa starts from Lifeng’s account Ruma and invites collective writing, directing, performance and documentation.

    Continue from this work ↗
  49. Pre-performance poster for Breaking the Moon announcing December 16 at 19:30, 321 Space, with credits for Li Yaxin, Xu Shuai, He Fa and Sun Jiarui.

    Body and presence

    Relations change a role’s position

    Romance TheatreBreaking the Moon

    Liang Yin’s Romance Theatre proposal feeds interaction records into a script; a Breaking the Moon rehearsal account turns an observer role into a participant in a relationship. Life and theatre rewrite one another without making real people identical to characters.

    2022 / Continuing workshops, relational practice and documentation
    2023 / Theatre, rehearsal and production archive

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentFrom proposal to continuing practice ↗

      Liang Yin’s November 2022 call proposes recording relationships, developing a script from the recordings and performance by participants; He Fa’s later account is dated separately.

    2. Period documentThe supervising producer within collaborative rehearsal ↗

      An actor’s account of 7 December 2023 records an observer role becoming a participant through discussion, with He Fa contributing as supervisor; actor and character remain distinct.

    Continue from this work ↗
  50. He Fa’s photograph of Yellow River Counterflow illuminated

    Body and presence

    What else can a familiar use become

    How to Eat a Banana?Gewu Studio / Twelve Water Lamps

    The How to Eat a Banana? invitation questions a familiar action; the lamps combine illumination with looking at water forms. Both open artistic possibilities through everyday use, but a workshop invitation is not a verified account of what happened.

    2021 / P4X workshop
    2012–2013 / Co-creation, 3D printing and product design

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentThe voice of the invitation · 2021 ↗

      The original call of 24 March 2021 invites people to experience how to eat a banana together; it supplies neither complete exercises nor post-event results.

    2. Period documentConcept and product catalogues for the 2012 graduation exhibition ↗

      The 2012 graduation Product Catalogue records the lamps, white 3D-printed nylon and a 220V/5W source; it grounds the object and luminous structure, not ambient illumination.

    Continue from this work ↗
  51. Performance poster with a collage grid and curving purple lines

    Rules and choices

    How to act, who chooses

    How to Eat a Banana?A Centrist’s Self-Rescue Guide After the Failure of Love

    The banana workshop’s “how” invites a shared experience; the Centrist performance introduction places audience choices within the plot. One leaves the exercise method unspecified, while the other situates choice within a dramatic scenario.

    2021 / P4X workshop
    2021 / P4U immersive theatre; associated writing

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentThe voice of the invitation · 2021 ↗

      The original call of 24 March 2021 invites people to experience how to eat a banana together; it supplies neither complete exercises nor post-event results.

    2. Period documentThe production and He Fa’s writing ↗

      The project text and He Fa’s Who Is a Centrist? of 23 April 2021 ground audience choices, character speech and repetitive language; production credits remain distinct.

    Continue from this work ↗
  52. Fafalish installation: printed paper runs along a library wall above computer workstations

    Language in transit

    How a sentence changes a position

    A Centrist’s Self-Rescue Guide After the Failure of LoveFafalish

    He Fa’s Who Are the Centrists? uses repetition and wordplay to unsettle a position; Fafalish changes sentences through transcription and translation. Both intervene in meaning, but writing and conversion do not constitute the same mechanism of error.

    2021 / P4U immersive theatre; associated writing
    2017 / Language, video, printed text

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentThe production and He Fa’s writing ↗

      The project text and He Fa’s Who Is a Centrist? of 23 April 2021 ground audience choices, character speech and repetitive language; production credits remain distinct.

    2. Period documentChinese poem ↗

      The CCA exhibition statement supplies six transformations: Chinese poetry, literal English translation, accented reading, pinyin transcription, Chinese rewriting and machine translation into English.

    Continue from this work ↗
  53. The white spiral body of Gewu Studio’s Wave Pen

    Language in transit

    What identity does a name give an object

    Happiness KingdomGewu Studio / Products and Spatial Experiments

    Tantan’s naming text connects ten homophones to temperaments and flowers; Happiness Kingdom lets makers give figures personalities. Names extend objects’ meanings in both, while a series-naming proposal differs from an ongoing shared world.

    2023 / Collective puppet-making, role play and an evolving theatrical environment
    2012–2013 / Parametric design, products, 3D printing, spatial proposals

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentEntering a role through making ↗

      Public materials from April–May 2023 describe collective puppet making, assigned personalities and role recruitment; individual roles and texts retain their own authors.

    2. Period documentTen names for Tantan ↗

      The Gewu Tantan text connects ten homophonic names with temperaments and floral images; it is a naming proposal.

    Continue from this work ↗
  54. Participants sit in a circle on the floor of P4 Theater’s black-box space

    Working together

    How a collaboration takes another name

    Purples / Purple ActionP4 Theater

    Purples was co-initiated by Shen Bolun, He Fa and Shao Yifan; P4 hosts different projects and initiators. Connected platforms do not share identical authorship, and a new collective name establishes a boundary of credit worth retaining.

    2021 / Participatory theatre, role-playing and experiments in organisation
    2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentSelected project documents ↗

      Selected pages of the Purple Action project introduction preserve co-initiation, origins and structure; the spatial presentation plan remains a historical proposal.

    2. Later accountEnabling participants to initiate work ↗

      He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship.

    Continue from this work ↗
  55. A film still from Human Surrender

    Working together

    How shared making is credited

    Theatre Murder CaseHuman Surrender / Shoot Self with You

    Theatre Murder Case combines drama and games under the name FakingAosome; Human Surrender credits its crew with collectively creating the direction and screenplay. Both organize practice involving multiple people, while the duo and the film crew define different scopes of authorship.

    By 2016 / Immersive theatre, drama and games
    2023–2024 / Film, rehearsal, live performance

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentDrama and games at P4 Theater ↗

      The 2016 proposal jointly signed by He Fa and Zhang Aoshuang lists the work under FakingAosome and explicitly combines theatre and games at P4; detailed documentation is limited.

    2. Event recordCollective credits in the film ↗

      At 02:34:12 the film credits directly attribute direction and screenplay to collective work by the cast and crew; the scope follows the original credit wording.

    Continue from this work ↗
  56. Transcription of the artist’s 2018 note identifying an Instagram account as his thesis; not a platform screenshot

    Keeping and losing

    A page can become a site of work

    Shadow Counterpointchinesesamericandream / Instagram Thesis

    Shadow Counterpoint organizes viewing through published GIFs and text; the Instagram thesis statement identifies the account itself as the work’s entry. One has a specific documented page; the other still requires fuller reading of historical posts.

    2016 / Collective theatre, GIF and text
    2018 / Network-based work, Instagram account, thesis

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentHow the work took shape ↗

      The public 2016 GIF edition combines joint credits, text and looping images; the 2022 retrospective is dated separately.

    2. Artist’s statementA thesis located in an account ↗

      The original 2018 Fa He.docx designates an Instagram account as the thesis; historical posts have not been fully read and no posting sequence is supplied.

    Continue from this work ↗
  57. Portrait — He Fa, full image

    Versions of a work

    Two versions of the same face

    ILarge Portraits / Portraits

    Portrait — He Fa from 2010 and I from 2012 use the same portrait, without and with a grid respectively, and with different dimensions. Source material continues, but titles and versions should not be collapsed.

    2012 / Archival inkjet print
    2010 / Photography, archival pigment prints

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentRecords from 2010 and 2012 ↗

      The two portfolios separately record titles, dates and sizes for the 2010 ungridded vertical version and the 2012 gridded square version, retaining a shared source with distinct versions.

    2. Period documentAnother record of the same portrait ↗

      The composition and dimensions of the 2010 Portrait—He Fa and 2012 I follow their respective documents; titles are not merged.

    Continue from this work ↗
  58. The white spiral body of Gewu Studio’s Wave Pen

    Spaces transformed

    Landscape between image and threshold

    ShanshuiGewu Studio / Products and Spatial Experiments

    Shanshui forms a landscape from photographs, readable from near and far; the Clear Breeze Screen proposal places curved layers between a residence and a sea view. One changes an image, the other proposes changing an actual passage of sight.

    2012 / Photography, digital montage, light boxes
    2012–2013 / Parametric design, products, 3D printing, spatial proposals

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

      The statement on defence page 7 describes an experiment with 1,025 Siguniang photographs, combining different viewpoints as traces of walking; that number is not generalized to every work.

    2. Period documentQingfeng Fuping: a view that changes with the body ↗

      Pages 3, 6, 11, 14–17 and 20 of the Qingfeng Screen proposal document the sea-view screen, 55 surfaces and changing viewing positions; renderings do not establish construction.

    Continue from this work ↗
  59. A seated group with the overlaid title Messages from the Deliberation Panel

    Working together

    Where disagreement can appear

    The Rooftop HowlerFinal Solution

    Rooftop Howler preserves recruitment, rehearsals, performance and later conversations; Final Solution preserves questioning, voting and reflection. Both leave an event available for return viewing, while collective rehearsal and decisions about character removal use different forms of organization.

    2020–2021 / Theatre, rehearsal and documentation
    2021 / Participatory theatre, a deliberation game and process documentation

    Read the source materials
    1. Event recordProject statement ↗

      The project account records recruitment, rehearsals, performance and later conversations, together with on-site 3P documentation by He Fa, Zhang Shaohua and Huang Lucang.

    2. Period documentGiving the assembly the decision ↗

      The May 2021 call and He Fa’s July account document questioning, voting, character departure and transcription with reflection; version differences remain explicit.

    Continue from this work ↗
  60. A seated group with the overlaid title Messages from the Deliberation Panel

    Rules and choices

    How games enter theatre

    Theatre Murder CaseFinal Solution

    A contemporary document describes Theatre Murder Case as combining drama and games; Final Solution preserves questioning, voting and revisions to its rules. Both bring games into theatre, but the surviving material supports different levels of detailed reading.

    By 2016 / Immersive theatre, drama and games
    2021 / Participatory theatre, a deliberation game and process documentation

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentDrama and games at P4 Theater ↗

      The 2016 proposal jointly signed by He Fa and Zhang Aoshuang lists the work under FakingAosome and explicitly combines theatre and games at P4; detailed documentation is limited.

    2. Period documentGiving the assembly the decision ↗

      The May 2021 call and He Fa’s July account document questioning, voting, character departure and transcription with reflection; version differences remain explicit.

    Continue from this work ↗
  61. I by He Fa

    Distance and looking

    A mountain and a face

    ShanshuiI

    Shanshui assembles local views into a mountain; I assembles macro photographs of skin into a face. Stepping back makes each recognizable, while approaching leads into places and bodily surfaces respectively. The recognizable whole cannot retain every detail.

    2012 / Photography, digital montage, light boxes
    2012 / Archival inkjet print

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

      The statement on defence page 7 describes an experiment with 1,025 Siguniang photographs, combining different viewpoints as traces of walking; that number is not generalized to every work.

    2. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement describes macro observation of the self, becoming a mountain and the camera as observer, directly grounding the internal viewing relation in the self-portrait.

    Continue from this work ↗
  62. Cocktail by He Fa

    Rules and choices

    Why photographs become neighbours

    ShanshuiCocktail

    Shanshui reassembles views gathered through climbing; Cocktail lets JPEG file size determine adjacency. Both construct a whole from many photographs, but their arrangements refer respectively to an experience of looking and a technical value.

    2012 / Photography, digital montage, light boxes
    2013 / Archival inkjet print

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

      The statement on defence page 7 describes an experiment with 1,025 Siguniang photographs, combining different viewpoints as traces of walking; that number is not generalized to every work.

    2. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement explicitly makes JPEG file size the sorting criterion and describes settling and floating; numerical sorting is not equated with judgement of people.

    Continue from this work ↗
  63. Central by He Fa

    Language in transit

    One more decision among the mountains

    ShanshuiCentral

    Shanshui combines separate views into mountains; Central brings a sun from a relief into its mountainous image. Both make a whole that no single exposure witnessed. One accumulates acts of looking; the other emphasizes the decision to place an element in a particular position.

    2012 / Photography, digital montage, light boxes
    2013 / Archival inkjet print

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

      The statement on defence page 7 describes an experiment with 1,025 Siguniang photographs, combining different viewpoints as traces of walking; that number is not generalized to every work.

    2. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement explicitly begins with a relief encountered while travelling and places the sun among mountains; this is the artist’s stated compositional decision.

    Continue from this work ↗
  64. Wu by He Fa

    Rules and choices

    How a landscape frame leaves room for the unknown

    ShanshuiWu

    Shanshui makes separate acts of framing visible between the whole and its details. A statement for Wu describes free growth within a familiar landscape composition. Both sustain a landscape form: one reveals differences in looking, while the other places a chosen frame beside a declaration of openness.

    2012 / Photography, digital montage, light boxes
    2013–2014 / Archival inkjet print

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

      The statement on defence page 7 describes an experiment with 1,025 Siguniang photographs, combining different viewpoints as traces of walking; that number is not generalized to every work.

    2. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement retains both the choice of a familiar landscape composition and the declaration of free growth; it does not establish the absence of artistic decisions.

    Continue from this work ↗
  65. Shixiang’s dark stage, with a large-format camera and lighting at its centre

    Keeping and losing

    Where many acts of looking are held

    ShanshuiShixiang

    Shanshui places separate views on one surface; Shixiang carries viewing beyond photography into another meeting. Both extend a single act of looking. Photographs can be rearranged, however, while participants continue to live and respond.

    2012 / Photography, digital montage, light boxes
    2019–2020 / Photography theatre

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

      The statement on defence page 7 describes an experiment with 1,025 Siguniang photographs, combining different viewpoints as traces of walking; that number is not generalized to every work.

    2. Period documentEight and a half acts. ↗

      The 2020 project text sets out photography in odd acts and viewing and expression in even acts within an eight-and-a-half-act structure; this is the method announced at the time.

    Continue from this work ↗
  66. Wu by He Fa

    Language in transit

    When the water lamps become photographs again

    Gewu Studio / Twelve Water LampsWu

    Twelve Water Lamps turns the study of water paintings into surfaces that can be lit. Some images titled Wu photograph the lamps, returning them to a plane. Media move in both directions here, while using a lamp and viewing its photograph remain different experiences.

    2012–2013 / Co-creation, 3D printing and product design
    2013–2014 / Archival inkjet print

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentConcept and product catalogues for the 2012 graduation exhibition ↗

      The 2012 graduation Product Catalogue records the lamps, white 3D-printed nylon and a 220V/5W source; it grounds the object and luminous structure, not ambient illumination.

    2. Period documentThe lamps as photographic subjects ↗

      Pages 23–25 of the 2015 preparation PPT title lamp photographs Wu, dated 2014, inkjet print, 120×120 cm; photographs and objects are catalogued separately.

    Continue from this work ↗
  67. He Fa’s photograph of Yellow River Counterflow illuminated

    Spaces transformed

    A luminous plane and a luminous surface

    ShanshuiGewu Studio / Twelve Water Lamps

    Shanshui lights a planar collage through a lightbox; Twelve Water Lamps places water patterns in translucent three-dimensional surfaces. Light shapes visibility in both, while viewing encounters the organization of a photographic plane or the folds, thickness and openings of an object.

    2012 / Photography, digital montage, light boxes
    2012–2013 / Co-creation, 3D printing and product design

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentNavigate on screen; approach the physical work. ↗

      The CAFA Art Museum collection record specifies C-print lightbox transparency and lightbox, grounding a backlit planar medium.

    2. Period documentConcept and product catalogues for the 2012 graduation exhibition ↗

      The 2012 graduation Product Catalogue records the lamps, white 3D-printed nylon and a 220V/5W source; it grounds the object and luminous structure, not ambient illumination.

    Continue from this work ↗
  68. Fafalish installation: printed paper runs along a library wall above computer workstations

    Language in transit

    How later voices enter the material

    YourTubeFafalish

    Fafalish repeatedly changes text through transcription and translation; YourTube brings phonetic reinterpretation, on-screen comments and re-editing into multiple screens. Both expose material to later interpretations, but successive linguistic conversions and the juxtaposition of earlier viewing traces unfold at different rhythms.

    2018 / Multi-screen video installation
    2017 / Language, video, printed text

    Read the source materials
    1. Event recordA playback file finds its place in the installation ↗

      The Dayou.mp4 shown in the installation instructions corresponds to the saved file of the same name and size; its frames retain on-screen comments and picture-in-picture.

    2. Period documentChinese poem ↗

      The CCA exhibition statement supplies six transformations: Chinese poetry, literal English translation, accented reading, pinyin transcription, Chinese rewriting and machine translation into English.

    Continue from this work ↗
  69. A film still from Human Surrender

    Keeping and losing

    Seeing others and changing an image

    YourTubeHuman Surrender / Shoot Self with You

    YourTube places existing comments over images; Human Surrender brings those filming and those filmed into shared production. The former makes others’ viewing traces visible; the latter also credits collective direction and writing. The word interaction cannot adequately describe both arrangements.

    2018 / Multi-screen video installation
    2023–2024 / Film, rehearsal, live performance

    Read the source materials
    1. Event recordA playback file finds its place in the installation ↗

      Source frames retain on-screen text, picture-in-picture and images of viewers, bringing existing traces of viewing into the playback material.

    2. Event recordCollective credits in the film ↗

      The credits at 02:34:12 and 02:34:50 separately retain collective direction and screenplay, production, editing and shared cinematography.

    Continue from this work ↗
  70. A film still from Human Surrender

    Working together

    Facing one’s image again

    ShixiangHuman Surrender / Shoot Self with You

    Shixiang extends photography into renewed viewing and expression; Human Surrender organizes shared filming into a film. Both bring people before their own images. Responses during continuing meetings differ from the choices that establish a finished version.

    2019–2020 / Photography theatre
    2023–2024 / Film, rehearsal, live performance

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentEight and a half acts. ↗

      The 2020 project text sets out photography in odd acts and viewing and expression in even acts within an eight-and-a-half-act structure; this is the method announced at the time.

    2. Period documentFrom a borrowed camera to shifting production roles ↗

      The production account of 18 August 2023 specifically records shifts among photography, performance, directing and documentation in collective creation.

    Continue from this work ↗
  71. A film still from Human Surrender

    Keeping and losing

    Continuing events and completing a version

    P4 TheaterHuman Surrender / Shoot Self with You

    P4 continually organizes recruitment, rehearsal and screenings; Human Surrender develops one shared project into a film. The platform enables further events, while the film fixes one version of their sequence. Its collective authors are not replaced by the platform’s overarching name.

    2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives
    2023–2024 / Film, rehearsal, live performance

    Read the source materials
    1. Later accountEnabling participants to initiate work ↗

      He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship.

    2. Event recordCollective credits in the film ↗

      The film credits retain collective direction and screenplay plus He Fa’s initiation, production and editing credits, which cannot be replaced by a platform name.

    Continue from this work ↗
  72. Shixiang’s dark stage, with a large-format camera and lighting at its centre

    Working together

    How a project inhabits a platform

    P4 TheaterShixiang

    Within P4, Shixiang extends portrait photography into repeated meetings. P4 also accommodates screenings, rehearsals and projects initiated by others. The photographic project defines its own terms of publication, while the platform must retain different authors’ ways of working.

    2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives
    2019–2020 / Photography theatre

    Read the source materials
    1. Later accountEnabling participants to initiate work ↗

      He Fa’s 2024 account and the 2025 ten-year archive explicitly preserve participant-initiated projects; platform support does not replace project authorship.

    2. Period documentParticipants decide whether their photographs become public. ↗

      The original project description leaves publication of photographs to participants; this is a specific project rule.

    Continue from this work ↗
  73. Participants sit in a circle on the floor of P4 Theater’s black-box space

    Spaces transformed

    After the seats are connected

    YourTubeP4 Theater

    YourTube joins stools into a ring with tubing; P4 organizes encounters through adapted spaces, recruitment and project cycles. Both arrange bodily proximity. Furniture’s physical connections cannot replace the continuing responses that shared making requires.

    2018 / Multi-screen video installation
    2015–present / Long-term art practice, live work and archives

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentInstallation instructions and playback ↗

      The saved installation instructions document switching on individual screens, media players and MP4 selection, and preserve the arrangement of screens, tubing and six connected stools.

    2. Later account2019–2021: shared photographic research and a public venue ↗

      Retrospective texts including A Seemingly Uncertain Future specifically describe photographic research, founding the space, recruitment, rehearsals and public opening.

    Continue from this work ↗
  74. Cocktail by He Fa

    Rules and choices

    Which judgments pass to a procedure

    FafalishCocktail

    Cocktail lets JPEG file size determine which photographs become neighbours; Fafalish makes one transcription the input for another conversion. Both delegate part of a judgment, while ordering photographs and repeatedly changing sounds and meanings remain distinct operations.

    2017 / Language, video, printed text
    2013 / Archival inkjet print

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentChinese poem ↗

      The CCA exhibition statement supplies six transformations: Chinese poetry, literal English translation, accented reading, pinyin transcription, Chinese rewriting and machine translation into English.

    2. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement explicitly makes JPEG file size the sorting criterion and describes settling and floating; numerical sorting is not equated with judgement of people.

    Continue from this work ↗
  75. Shixiang’s dark stage, with a large-format camera and lighting at its centre

    Language in transit

    Can preserved material receive another answer

    FafalishShixiang

    Fafalish turns a reading into another version through transcription; Shixiang invites photographed participants to respond again to their preserved portraits. Material prompts another step in both. One passes through writing and sound, while the other also brings decisions about publication into the meeting.

    2017 / Language, video, printed text
    2019–2020 / Photography theatre

    Read the source materials
    1. Period documentChinese poem ↗

      The CCA exhibition statement supplies six transformations: Chinese poetry, literal English translation, accented reading, pinyin transcription, Chinese rewriting and machine translation into English.

    2. Period documentParticipants decide whether their photographs become public. ↗

      The original project description explicitly leaves photograph publication to participants, alongside the structure of viewing and renewed meetings.

    Continue from this work ↗
  76. Cocktail by He Fa

    Rules and choices

    Two arrangements within the same year

    CentralCocktail

    Central insists on placing the sun at a particular position among the mountains; Cocktail organizes photographic adjacency through file size. Both are montages from 2013. One foregrounds the artist’s decision about an element; the other delegates part of composition to a rule.

    2013 / Archival inkjet print
    2013 / Archival inkjet print

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement explicitly begins with a relief encountered while travelling and places the sun among mountains; this is the artist’s stated compositional decision.

    2. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement explicitly makes JPEG file size the sorting criterion and describes settling and floating; numerical sorting is not equated with judgement of people.

    Continue from this work ↗
  77. Shixiang’s dark stage, with a large-format camera and lighting at its centre

    Body and presence

    A divided self and a renewed meeting

    IShixiang

    In I, the artist assembles details of his own skin into a portrait. Zhang Shaohua and He Fa jointly develop photography and renewed viewing in Shixiang. Dividing the observer and the observed within a self-portrait entails different responsibilities of interpretation from meeting another person repeatedly.

    2012 / Archival inkjet print
    2019–2020 / Photography theatre

    Read the source materials
    1. Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

      The portfolio statement describes macro observation of the self, becoming a mountain and the camera as observer, directly grounding the internal viewing relation in the self-portrait.

    2. Period documentMake a portrait. Then face it together. ↗

      The public project introduction identifies Zhang Shaohua and He Fa’s shared work, their respective contributions and the process of photography, meetings and return viewing.

    Continue from this work ↗
  78. He Fa’s photograph of Yellow River Counterflow illuminated

    Spaces transformed

    How an object enters a photograph

    XIN GEWUGewu Studio / Twelve Water Lamps

    Twelve Water Lamps emerged from Gewu Studio’s collaborative practice. Through photography, conceptual development and artistic direction, He Fa considered the forms of objects. XIN GEWU returns to light, surfaces and space, continuing the inquiry held in those earlier photographs.

    2026–present / Photography, objects and space
    2012–2013 / Co-creation, 3D printing and product design

    Read the source materials
    1. Work imageObjects, light and space in photographs ↗

      XIN GEWU presents He Fa’s photographs from the Gewu Studio period, keeping their complete frames to examine surfaces, light and openings. Photographic authorship is recorded separately from the collaborative studio practice behind the objects.

    2. Period documentTwelve Water Lamps: work and collaboration ↗

      The 2012–2013 work and exhibition records preserve Twelve Water Lamps as a collaborative studio work alongside He Fa’s photographs of the originals. They record his photography, conceptual development, form exploration and artistic direction.

    Continue from this work ↗