Xiao Zhiyu’s painting practice explores relationships between painted objects and contemporary image economies, where representation is shaped by dynamics of circulation, distortion, and screen-based perception. His modular paintings and display devices respond to shifting conditions of image-making across times and geographies Following the study of landscape traditions, Xiao moves between European and Chinese contexts to examine how notions of nature, perspective, and technology have been differently conceived.
Drawing on Yuk Hui’s theory of cosmotechnics, he reconsiders Ming dynasty 山水 (shān shuǐ) painting not as a historical form, but as a framework that embodies an otherwise towards today’s human-land relationship which is deeply rooted in the extractivist logics of colonial modernity. Xiao’s practice draws on transnational experience, working from fleeting images – often taken through airplane windows or gathered online. These fragments, stored on his phone, become material for paintings that question how landscape and memory are shaped today. Rather than depicting scenery, he treats landscape as a site where vision, history, and bodily distance quietly collide.
Visit Xiao Zhiyu’s website here
2026
Practice: Painting / Installation / Literature
Research Focus
The European tradition of landscape as a universal lens through which the world becomes passive scenery to be admired or possessed. This reframed landscape as a Renaissance technology intrinsically tied to colonialism, imperialism, and later capitalism. Irish landscapes have been historically portrayed as serene, sublime and passive backdrops, obscuring underlying tensions. Xiao Zhiyu aims to interrogate Ireland’s peripheral position through parallels with the Chinese tradition of 卧游 (wò yóu) “traveling while lying down”, a method of imaginative engagement with landscape originally articulated by the Southern Dynasties scholar Zong Bing(375-444). He will examine how Western museology embeds archival violence, exploring ways to reactivate marginalized histories through poetic re-encounters between images, objects, and viewers. By transforming static displays into spaces of critical resonance, Xiao Zhiyu seeks latent possibilities for healing and reconnection.
More about the Dwell Here Residency
Dwell Here offers participants a simple proposition: to commit to this time and place while thinking deeply about its urgencies. Together we are curious to learn what can be activated or challenged through the process of dwelling. IMMA encourages reflection across the following themes to consider geographical, historical, political and cultural concepts of Ireland as a starting point to expand and connect international contexts through similarities and differences:
Technologies of Peace – to consider commemorative landscapes and memories of peace (as a dream, movement, or value) while generating perspectives on sustainable coexistence.
The Irish Paradigm – Welcomes artistic research that creates intimacy and connections, while celebrating the perceived agility and freedoms of operating on the periphery. As a small island on the edge of Europe, Ireland often has a challenging relationship with ‘the centre’.
The Museum as a Site of Vibration – consider how the museum and site can create new vibrations and rhythms within the built legacy of empire. How can museums make visible cultural shifts, including erased, censored or marginalised histories, as well as sustainability, planetary care, sharing and hospitality.