You Can Swim in the Air

2025
Concrete, steel, aluminium, acrylic, resin, LCD module, humidity sensor module, humidifier module, arduino.
36 x 39 x 42 cm

You Can Swim in the Air is a fog-generating machine that simulates the humidity of the artist’s hometown, Shanghai, during the rainy season, before migrating to the United States. The work explores how physical environments influence and shape human perception, memory, embodied experience, and connections with other invisible, nonhuman substances, as well as the ensuing feelings of displacement and diasporic experience.

The installation consists of a humidifier and a projector. When the ambient humidity drops below 98%, the humidifier automatically activates. As mist accumulates, visibility within the transparent cube gradually diminishes, while projected videos of memories from the artist’s homeland begin to surface. Through this dynamic interplay, the work probes the multiple dimensions of memory and the subtle, inexpressible sensations that are internally held.