These clothes are not secondhand, says Yin Xiuzhen, the Beijing-born artist known for creating large-scale installations out of found garments and keepsakes. I prefer to call them used' or worn', she explains. Clothes that have been worn' carry a lot of information like a second skin, imprinted with social meaning. In some of Yin's works the clothes are her own, telling a personal story. In others, the clothes are collected, stained and stretched across towering steel frames resembling planes, trains or organic forms.
Chiharu Shiota and Yin Xiuzhen share an interest in memories and produce sculptural pieces that are adventurous and experimental. Their works invite viewers to engage with their art while exploring their large installations. Both artists use textiles and discarded domestic objects as basic materials in their work, which, along with the emotional undertones of the pieces, might remind viewers of the oeuvre of Louise Bourgeois, who also used her art to explore and contain emotional memory and anguish.