Video Transcript
(Original language: Mandarin)
HU XIAOYUAN: Everything is in the process of fading away, but due to the brevity of our life there are some things that we don't notice. I'm currently thinking a lot about the issue of authenticity. It's an important aspect of how I perceive and think about this world and existence.
As an artist or as an individual, it's a fundamental part of my existence. In this exhibition, I depicted a pomegranate through my usual method. I found a very plump pomegranate in great shape at the supermarket and then I brought it back to the studio and applied xiao, which I often use in my creations.
Xiao is a pure and natural raw silk woven in a traditional way. I used it to tightly wrap the pomegranate and sew it up so it fit closely to its surface. I'm using xiao and I find the material itself intensely… biological.
It is a type of purely animal-derived material. It is woven with the simplest plain weave method and it's very, very clean, meaning only silk is used. Probably because of the interconnectedness of different organisms I am able to perceive certain qualities in this fabric.
For example, I can feel the breath of life in the material. After wrapping it, and as I often do, I use ink to paint all of the visible details on the pomegranate. We all know that the fruit will dry out and shrink as time passes. As it gets drier and drier, the xiao layer covering the surface also changes over time. That's when it becomes interesting.
We all have the initial assumption that seeing is believing and that what we see is real. In this case, the initial layer I painted was what is believed to be the most authentic state of the pomegranate, but after a few months, it changed to this. So, which one of these two pomegranates is real?
This article was updated on 17 August 2026.
Artist Hu Xiaoyuan discusses how her work Spheres of Doubt (2019) plays with notions of authenticity, as its organic materials change as time passes.
Spheres of Doubt questions if seeing really is believing. The components of the installation are all overlaid with xiao, a kind of raw silk. The surface details of the objects—which include steel structures, a pomegranate, used bricks, and soap—are finely traced with ink on the fibre that covers them. The raw silk on the steel structures has been aged for over one year.
Hu’s practice encompasses installation, video, sculpture, and painting, often drawing from specific experiences to address abstract topics related to time, space, consciousness, and existence. Spheres of Doubt articulates a perspective on the passage of time, including the slow shrinking of fruit and the gradual deterioration of the raw silk. The changes are recorded by scars, surface markings, and the hollow spaces that develop between the objects and the silk.
Everything is in the process of fading away, but due to the brevity of our lives, there are some things that we don’t notice.
Hu Xiaoyuan
Updated on 17 August 2026
Hu Xiaoyuan. Spheres of Doubt, 2019. M+, Hong Kong. Gift of Honus Tandijono in honour of Dr Pi Li, 2026. Photo: Laura Laviani, M+, Hong Kong
Since 2020, Hu Xiaoyuan’s work has continued to develop through a sustained attention to material, perception, and poetic quality. Working across different mediums, Hu brings together organic and industrial materials— raw silk, wood, shells, snake slough, aerospace aluminium—to explore how things change, deteriorate, harden, or reveal themselves over time. Rather than treating materials as passive media, she approaches them as having their own memories, resistance, and duration.
In recent projects, including her 2025 solo exhibition, Veering at Tai Kwun, Hong Kong, Hu has expanded this inquiry into larger spatial and sensory environments. Through installations, sound, video, and carefully choreographed viewing conditions, she considers the relationship between individual existence, natural processes, and the passage of time. Her works often remain quiet in appearance, yet they ask precise questions about visibility, embodiment, and the limits of perception.
Hu’s practice extends conversations around contemporary Chinese art beyond narrative and representation. The inclusion of her work, including Spheres of Doubt (2019), in the M+ Collections, made possible through the generous donation of Honus Tandijono in honour of Dr Pi Li, strengthens the museum’s representation of recent artistic practices that engage material life and bodily experience.
—Neil Zhang, De Ying Associate Curator, Visual Art, M+
Video Credits
- Produced by
M+
- Producer
Adam Studios
- Curatorial Research
Pi Li, Isabella Tam, Kary Woo
- M+ Video Production
Chris Sullivan, Jaye Yau, Angel Ng
This video was originally published on M+ Stories.