He Fa on XXX

An oversized hat announces an emperor before its wearer has said a word. A small pair of legs interrupts the announcement. He Fa on XXX begins with this mismatch between an inherited image and the body asked to carry it.

The project gathers completed AI-assisted character images and original role-writing by He Fa with AI collaboration. Philosophers, artists, public figures and fictional characters coexist with invented bodies made of weather, architecture, food and punctuation.

Each Chinese essay starts from the generated image. It explores the demands made by a costume, an object or a bodily proportion. These are creative interpretations, not quotations or statements attributed to the people and characters being referenced. Multiple versions of the same figure can lead to different arguments.

The first-person voice belongs to the art character. The essays below are in Chinese; their Chinese titles and links are retained here.