Xiaoxuan Long was born and raised in a Chinese coastal city. Long holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from University of the Arts London having moved to the UK when she was 18. Long has tried to find a way of combining in her artworks Chinese and Western culture since arriving in London.
Long works in a wide range of mediums including; pencils, glue sticks, clay, household waste, and electronic art. In the past two years, living under the pandemic has led her to focus on food, the internet and the ways in which algorithms control our actions. Food is directly related to our survival, embodies social hierarchy, shows wealth disparity and the different lives we lead as a result. Long cites food as a breakthrough and fundamental social marker and uses her practice, two series of works, ‘The original long life‘ and ‘Going forward, going backwards‘ to discuss the consumption alienation. Through recreating and combining Long’s existing digital works, she presents several groups of looping moving images on an electronic display held by a long arm articulate metal installation. From distorting and deforming well-known images like Green Giant, organic food labels, and long life milk products. Long discusses that as we shift our food purchases from the local markets to supermarkets, the way we consume is being monopolised. This monopolisation creates invisible privilege, and determines our every day life. What’s more, the Internet and the collection of data is also determining what information we are exposed to and amplifies the biases that enforce privilege.
The question is, whether a faster and easier life gained by selling our privacy is development or regression. Whether the quality of food and our lives has declined through industrialisation and the algorithms used by big tech companies.
