MLitt Fine Art Practice School of Fine Art
Peng Ye
Peng is a mixed-media artist working with ceramics， textiles and moving image. Her recent works are based on personal experiences of self-migration and an awareness of cultural identity. Drawing inspiration from the matrilineal heritage of the Yao people, she explores the rupture of memory and the shifting continuity of tradition. Through a personalised archaeology of identity that interweaves oral history, mythological narratives and geographical traces, peng translates spiritual heritage into contemporary forms. By combining tactile materials with visual storytelling, she evokes intimate maps of belonging and re-imagines identity and geography in the present, emotionally bridging the generational loss of identity.
I, the Voyage-Craft
When we talk about the continuity of cultural identity, it is like facing the ‘Ship of Theseus’ – is the ship still the same when its parts are gradually replaced? The so-called ‘sameness’ is not a static material continuity – when the cells change, when the face ages, when the planks are replaced one by one, how can we identify and define the ‘self’ that is always present in the inevitable changes?
Anchoring ‘who we are’ is a dialogue of continuous reconstruction between generations.
During this time, I began to think about my position: am I a boat builder, an observer, or a person on the boat? Is the purpose of these people to build a new ship or to repair the old one?
I have fallen into the binary trap of either seeing change as a betrayal of the essence or accepting the ‘bifurcation’ of the split. Then I realise the act of research is partaking in repairing and navigating this ‘ship’.
So … which means… I am the vessel…
The Tour Guide
The Tour Guide investigates the friction between digital cartographies and sensory memory. Using 3D software to retrace routes I once walked, I find myself paradoxically “lost” within the precision of algorithmic logic. This dislocation uncovers a deeper truth: memory does not navigate by coordinates but through embodied landmarks—the cracks, shadows, and echoes that compose a personal life-code. The work juxtaposes the sterile, godlike vantage of satellites with the intimate warmth of lived experience, proposing that belonging is not measured but felt.
(23.8398900, 110.2622900)
This practice investigates identity through the lens of Yao heritage, reimagining myths and spiritual symbols as contemporary visual forms. Myth is approached not as something archaic, but as a living structure that requires material expression to endure. Through sculpture, image, and installation, these narratives are transcribed into works that oscillate between legibility and relic—renewing obscured traditions and opening space for new forms of belonging.
