Kissing Many Frogs
2025
Airing Publication made with bedsheets, Sidian's dating journal 2022–2025, laces, nylon hanging line
Site-specific work for the garden of ZIAN Gallery
Several oversized “ruffles” are pieced together from white bedsheets of various kinds, their surfaces sewn with fragments from Sidian’s ongoing dating diaries, which have been continuously shared on WeChat Moments since 2022. These texts are both records of intimacy and performances of writing in real time—they require the reader’s “witnessing” to come into being. In the virtual plaza of social media, the relationship between writer and reader mirrors that of mass-market romance novels (or fan fiction): collaborative yet confrontational, romantic yet charged with the thrill of voyeurism.
The bedsheets, shaped into ruffles, reference a spiral-cut sewing technique often used in decorative textiles, while also alluding to the coiling form of the snake in The Legend of the White Snake. In the tale, the white snake attains her powers by consuming a toad spirit’s elixir; the toad spirit is later reincarnated as the monk Fahai. This cycle of love and punishment unfolds in Hangzhou—the very city where this exhibition takes place.
As viewers walk through the suspended bedsheets, they enter a landscape akin to a communal bedding ground. Here, the soft and drying fabrics depend on sunlight, wind, and moisture—yet they also, in turn, reshape their surroundings. Standing among these “lotus leaves,” we become springtime dew: briefly meeting, forming, and soon, evaporating. April marks the season when snakes awaken from hibernation. Snake trails, bedsheets, dates, gossip, cultivation, desire, readers, and authors—all form part of this shared dream. The so-called “snake beauty” may well be a metaphor for those who transgress and transform within the realm of intimacy.
2025
Airing Publication made with bedsheets, Sidian's dating journal 2022–2025, laces, nylon hanging line
Site-specific work for the garden of ZIAN Gallery
Several oversized “ruffles” are pieced together from white bedsheets of various kinds, their surfaces sewn with fragments from Sidian’s ongoing dating diaries, which have been continuously shared on WeChat Moments since 2022. These texts are both records of intimacy and performances of writing in real time—they require the reader’s “witnessing” to come into being. In the virtual plaza of social media, the relationship between writer and reader mirrors that of mass-market romance novels (or fan fiction): collaborative yet confrontational, romantic yet charged with the thrill of voyeurism.
The bedsheets, shaped into ruffles, reference a spiral-cut sewing technique often used in decorative textiles, while also alluding to the coiling form of the snake in The Legend of the White Snake. In the tale, the white snake attains her powers by consuming a toad spirit’s elixir; the toad spirit is later reincarnated as the monk Fahai. This cycle of love and punishment unfolds in Hangzhou—the very city where this exhibition takes place.
As viewers walk through the suspended bedsheets, they enter a landscape akin to a communal bedding ground. Here, the soft and drying fabrics depend on sunlight, wind, and moisture—yet they also, in turn, reshape their surroundings. Standing among these “lotus leaves,” we become springtime dew: briefly meeting, forming, and soon, evaporating. April marks the season when snakes awaken from hibernation. Snake trails, bedsheets, dates, gossip, cultivation, desire, readers, and authors—all form part of this shared dream. The so-called “snake beauty” may well be a metaphor for those who transgress and transform within the realm of intimacy.
Kissing Many Frogs
2025
晾晒出版物（思典2022年以来的约会日记朋友圈截图、床单、花边、晾衣绳）
几条巨大的“荷叶边”由不同的白色床单拼缝而成，织物表面贴缝着思典自2022年以来在微信朋友圈持续连载的“约会日记”。这些文字既是情感记录，也是写作行为的现场，它们需要读者的“目击”才能成立，在社交平台这一虚拟广场中，读者与作者之间的互动仿若通俗言情小说（或同人文）中的经典关系——既共谋又对峙，既浪漫又略带窥私的紧张。
床单作为“荷叶边”，引用了缝纫中一种螺旋结构的布料装饰技艺，同时隐喻《白蛇传》中蛇的形象。白蛇服食蟾蜍精的仙丹得道修炼，蟾蜍精后转世为法海——这场爱情与惩罚的循环发生在杭州，而展览也恰恰发生于此。
观众穿行于悬挂的床单之间，如同置身于一个晒被场。在这里，柔软干燥的床单既依赖于周围的光、风、湿度，也反过来重塑了环境。立于这片片“荷叶”之间，我们都是春日露水，短暂地相逢、凝结，又终将离散。四月，蛇从冬眠中苏醒。蛇迹、床单、约会、流言、修炼、欲望、读者、作者——都是这场梦的组成部分。所谓“美女蛇”，也许正是对亲密关系中变形者、跨界者的另一种隐喻。
2025
晾晒出版物（思典2022年以来的约会日记朋友圈截图、床单、花边、晾衣绳）
几条巨大的“荷叶边”由不同的白色床单拼缝而成，织物表面贴缝着思典自2022年以来在微信朋友圈持续连载的“约会日记”。这些文字既是情感记录，也是写作行为的现场，它们需要读者的“目击”才能成立，在社交平台这一虚拟广场中，读者与作者之间的互动仿若通俗言情小说（或同人文）中的经典关系——既共谋又对峙，既浪漫又略带窥私的紧张。
床单作为“荷叶边”，引用了缝纫中一种螺旋结构的布料装饰技艺，同时隐喻《白蛇传》中蛇的形象。白蛇服食蟾蜍精的仙丹得道修炼，蟾蜍精后转世为法海——这场爱情与惩罚的循环发生在杭州，而展览也恰恰发生于此。
观众穿行于悬挂的床单之间，如同置身于一个晒被场。在这里，柔软干燥的床单既依赖于周围的光、风、湿度，也反过来重塑了环境。立于这片片“荷叶”之间，我们都是春日露水，短暂地相逢、凝结，又终将离散。四月，蛇从冬眠中苏醒。蛇迹、床单、约会、流言、修炼、欲望、读者、作者——都是这场梦的组成部分。所谓“美女蛇”，也许正是对亲密关系中变形者、跨界者的另一种隐喻。