SOMETHING HAPPENED
Chinatown Soup is pleased to present Something Happened, a traveling pop-up exhibition featuring the work of two artists who explore the fluid boundaries between reality and imagination.
On view from August 27 to September 1, 2024, the exhibition aligns with the transitional period of late August in Chinese culture, a time governed by the Earth element. This phase marks a seasonal crossroads, where shifting daylight and stronger winds set the stage for a color saturated exploration of everyday summer scenes intertwined with surreal imagery: floating fish in domestic spaces, silhouettes in a verdant pond, a disembodied hand gesturing across a floating tea table beside an open window, a naked maiden petting furtive white rabbits in various configurations, and more follow. Viewers are invited to get cozy in this soft, liminal space of familiarity, traversing indoor and outside realms.
Yi Fu’s series captures dreamlike narratives centered on girls and rabbits. Using the medium of tufting, she transforms delicate illustrations into tactile, yarn-based tableaux, infusing her work with softness. This choice mirrors the gentle, elusive qualities of dreams, making the mysterious nature of these scenes tangible.
Haozhe Li’s work draws inspiration from Freud’s theories of dreams in the context of virtual reality. She employs a blend of traditional and digital media—watercolors, pastels, and electronic painting—to visualize the subconscious. The bleeding watercolors and soft haze of pastels create an otherworldly atmosphere, challenging viewers to reconsider their perceptions and underlying assumptions.
Together, the works in Something Happened create a dreamscape that captures the lush, dissociative tenor of this fleeting turn of the wheel.
About the Artists
Yi Fu is an illustrator based in California. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art with a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts, where she developed a strong interest in mixed media, particularly book art and illustration. She pursued a freelance career in frame-by-frame animation, gaining around 200,000 social media followers. Yi Fu's passion for illustration led to her studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). She enjoys using various mediums like ceramics, paper-making, modeling, and animation to bring her illustrations to life. Inspired by everyday life, Yi Fu often depicts girls and dreamscapes, believing they represent the most beautiful aspects of our world.
Haozhe Li is a New York-based freelance illustrator. She earned an MFA in Illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and has since won accolades from iJungle Illustration and Hiii Illustration. Her works have also been shortlisted by the World Illustration Awards and the London International Creative Competition. Primarily using pastels, she creates artworks with soft tones and noticeable textures. Her natural and lived in scenes transcend traditional realism, skillfully blending elements of everyday life reality and surreality to form compelling visual narratives. Metaphor is a common thread, enabling Haozhe to convey wordless messages and emotion as figurative poetry that gently flows into the viewer's heart.