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.

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

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentFrom the portrait to its details ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

Body and presence
When the body’s background returns
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

Spaces transformed
Between blankness and crowding
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Work imageWorks & details ↗

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.
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- Work imageImages and presentation ↗
Displaced superimpositions form the architectural outlines; the original portfolio does not specify the number of exposures or processing algorithm.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

Versions of a work
How fragments occupy time
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.
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- Work imageImages and presentation ↗
The complete horizontal image consists of dense horizontal strips, with divisions and seams remaining visible.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

Language in transit
Reading after something is divided
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.
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- Work imageImages and presentation ↗
The complete horizontal image consists of dense horizontal strips, with divisions and seams remaining visible.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

Spaces transformed
Frames separate and connect
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

Versions of a work
Do not prearrange a version’s ending
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

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

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.
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- Work imageImages and presentation ↗
Photographic fragments accumulate along the long axis of a narrow vertical image, directing attention between its upper and lower ends.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗
- 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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statementThe artist’s account in the 2012 thesis ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statementThe artist’s account in the 2012 thesis ↗

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.
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- Work imageImages and presentation ↗
The first image arranges roads, vehicles and nearby buildings in repeated horizontal rows.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗
- 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.
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- Work imageImages and presentation ↗
The first image arranges roads, vehicles and nearby buildings in repeated horizontal rows.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

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

Working together
How tabletop things compose a world
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.
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- Work imageImages and presentation ↗
In the first image, table, food, people and room fragments form an encircling composition, with directions changed by the collage.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

Spaces transformed
One ring, different centres
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.
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- Work imageImages and presentation ↗
In the first image, table, food, people and room fragments form an encircling composition, with directions changed by the collage.
- 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.
- Work imageImages and presentation ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

Rules and choices
What kind of outcome does a rule produce
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

Language in transit
Materials shape how attention stays
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.
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- 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.
- Period documentTranslation does not return meaning intact. ↗
The CCA exhibition statement documents printed texts, the Kunlun video and listening/reading devices exhibited together.
- Period documentFrom photographs to a projectable image ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentFrom photographs to a projectable image ↗

Body and presence
A surface appears; a body is seen
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentFrom photographs to a projectable image ↗

Language in transit
Paper and light do different work
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentFrom photographs to a projectable image ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statementProjection and performance ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentFrom one screen to four ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentThe body as a passage through time ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentSpatiotemporal echoes ↗
- 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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentA proposal concerned with loss of control ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentA proposal concerned with loss of control ↗
- 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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentParticipation in the institutional record ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentParticipation in the institutional record ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentA publication emerging from a course ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentFour recordings ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statementThe artist’s statement before the review ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentWorking together in the proposal ↗

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

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentFrom screening to self-screening ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentBringing paper onto the stage ↗

Keeping and losing
Facing something one has left
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentBringing paper onto the stage ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Later accountFrom Shixiang research to an open call ↗

Working together
Who arrives beyond the pair
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Later accountFrom Shixiang research to an open call ↗

Versions of a work
Facing a version before stability
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentHow the work took shape ↗
- 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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentHow the work took shape ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentFrom proposal to continuing practice ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentThe voice of the invitation · 2021 ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentThe voice of the invitation · 2021 ↗

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

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.
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- 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.
- Period documentTen names for Tantan ↗
The Gewu Tantan text connects ten homophonic names with temperaments and floral images; it is a naming proposal.
- Period documentEntering a role through making ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentSelected project documents ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentDrama and games at P4 Theater ↗
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.
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- Period documentHow the work took shape ↗
The public 2016 GIF edition combines joint credits, text and looping images; the 2022 retrospective is dated separately.
- 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.
- Period documentHow the work took shape ↗

Versions of a work
Two versions of the same face
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentRecords from 2010 and 2012 ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Event recordProject statement ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentDrama and games at P4 Theater ↗

Distance and looking
A mountain and a face
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

Rules and choices
Why photographs become neighbours
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

Language in transit
One more decision among the mountains
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

Rules and choices
How a landscape frame leaves room for the unknown
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

Keeping and losing
Where many acts of looking are held
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statement1,025 photographs and the trace of walking ↗

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

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentNavigate on screen; approach the physical work. ↗

Language in transit
How later voices enter the material
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Event recordA playback file finds its place in the installation ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Event recordA playback file finds its place in the installation ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentEight and a half acts. ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Later accountEnabling participants to initiate work ↗

Working together
How a project inhabits a platform
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.
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- 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.
- Period documentParticipants decide whether their photographs become public. ↗
The original project description leaves publication of photographs to participants; this is a specific project rule.
- Later accountEnabling participants to initiate work ↗

Spaces transformed
After the seats are connected
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentInstallation instructions and playback ↗

Rules and choices
Which judgments pass to a procedure
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentChinese poem ↗

Language in transit
Can preserved material receive another answer
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Period documentChinese poem ↗

Rules and choices
Two arrangements within the same year
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

Body and presence
A divided self and a renewed meeting
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Artist’s statementArtist statement in the portfolio ↗

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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- Work imageObjects, light and space in photographs ↗