Hybrid Mythologies: Reinventing “Shan Hai Jing” through Fashion Narratives

In a project entitled Hybrid Mythologies, I explored how ancient stories can inform contemporary visual culture. I was drawn to the shifting identities and open-ended symbolism of three characters from the Chinese Classic of Mountains and Seas. My aim was to translate the text's imaginative elasticity into staged photographs combining physical performance and digital construction.
My visual vocabulary draws on the dramatic lighting and compositional tension of paintings such as Rubens's 'Samson and Delilah', Michelangelo's 'Expulsion from Eden', Fuseli's 'The Nightmare' and David's 'Death of Marat' and 'Oath of the Horatii'. Through the incorporation of these historical references alongside contemporary fashion styling, 3D-generated props, and algorithmic in-between frames, I explore the capacity of mythology to transcend cultures and centuries while retaining its emotional resonance.
I create scenes and generate visual elements in a virtual space, combining them with live-action photography to transcend the limitations of traditional shoots and explore new narrative and visual possibilities. The final stills are displayed as backlit light boxes, the glow of which echoes the spiritual atmosphere of the source paintings. A short AI animation brings each frame to life by extending subtle gestures and breathing.
For me, hybridity is both method and subject. By enabling classical chiaroscuro to interact with CGI textures and Eastern mythology to influence fashion narratives, I aim to produce images that feel simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar, encouraging viewers to consider the ongoing editing, translation, and reinterpretation of collective memory in our visually saturated present.