MLitt Fine Art Practice School of Fine Art
Shitong Xiao

I created a utopia that presents Plato’s ideal world while replacing the highest ideals with “monsters.” By contrasting the states of these “monsters” in natural environments and in the exhibition hall, I hope to provoke reflections on human intervention in nature.
Projects

Brave New World
I created a series of monster sculptures, inspired by Scottish cultural imagery and connotations of monsters, using symbolic colors and objects, collage, and silhouette techniques, with materials such as clay, white paint, varnish, and colored powders. For example, Scottish broom is a flower often mentioned in local legends, and it always appears with fairies. At the same time, I used some other elements of nature to arrange the scene. I hang branches on the wall and make many small “fairies” as a part of utopia. Inspired by the bells on the horse of fairy queen, I tied a bell at the door leading into the exhibition hall, and through this entrance ceremony, increased the integrity and boundaries of the utopia, and created a sense of distance to convey the ethereal and dreamy nature of the ideal world.