Nan Ke Gallery is pleased to present artist Weiyi Hu's installation Dream Body No. 4 at PHOTOFAIRS SHANGHAI (Booth S08) from May 8 to 11, 2024.
Weiyi Hu
No.4 Dream Body No. 4, 2025
Cyanotype on glass, LED light box, stainless steel bracket
291h x 163w x 20d cm
© Courtesy of the artist
Dream Body No. 4 is composed of multiple LED lightboxes, forming a unique photographic human silhouette. The artist meticulously selected images of injured body parts from tens of thousands of hospital X-rays, reassembling these otherwise unrelated fragments into a complete human form. These medical images are then combined with various medicinal plants and flowers through cyanotype printing on glass, creating a visual language that bridges medical documentation and artistic expression.
Installation view of Dream Body No.4 at FHOTO FAIRS SHANGHAI 2025, May 8, 2025 - May 11, Shanghai © Courtesy of Nan Ke Gallery.
Weiyi Hu merges the Western vanitas painting tradition with Buddhist "skeleton contemplation" philosophy in this work. The skeletal and fragmented imagery reveals the illusory nature of the material world, while the incorporation of medicinal plants transcends mere bodily metaphor, constructing an interspecies imaginary. The skeletal forms in the piece dissolve boundaries of gender, race, and class, and the presence of plants further challenges the human-nonhuman binary.
Conceptually, Dream Body No. 4 proposes profound ecological-philosophical reflections. The work reconstructs individual death as a process of returning to the totality of life, with each deconstructed body becoming a non-binary "other." This approach critiques anthropocentrism while exploring possibilities of multispecies coexistence. Through the juxtaposition of medical imagery and natural elements, the artist reexamines the complex relationships between body, technology, and nature in modernity.
Installation view of Dream Body No.4 at FHOTO FAIRS SHANGHAI 2025, May 8, 2025 - May 11, Shanghai © Courtesy of Nan Ke Gallery.
