Conversation

Shutong Fan is a Chinese artist with a background in architecture, holding a BSc from the University of Bath and an MA from the Royal College of Art. His multidisciplinary practice spans painting, photography, installation, and moving images, focusing on rethinking the potential of the ordinary. Fan aims to uncover the miraculous within the mundane, bridging personal memory with communal history. Exploring themes of transformation—whether of city, culture, or time—he examines the undesigned and the wisdom inherent in everyday life. The poetic and conceptual aspects of his work are rooted in personal history, drawing inspiration from the absurdity of overlooked objects and the deep humanity found in unassuming places. Fan finds inspiration in his grandmother’s resourcefulness, which transformed discarded objects out of necessity. While she did not consider her actions as art, Fan reinterprets and develops this ingenuity in his practice. He repurposes materials such as scourers, mops, and shoe racks, exploring themes of memory, the undesigned, and the wisdom embedded in the mundane. Field research, interviews, and the collection of site-specific materials are central to his process, enabling him to dislocate and recontextualize the overlooked. His art invites quiet contemplation, immersing viewers in memory and revealing the hidden beauty of the everyday.