ARTIST STATEMENT
Love Letter reflects on the visible yet concealed nature of queer intimacy within the cultural context of China, and how affection and identity can be shaped by social assumptions.
The series originates from the artist’s experience of exchanging love letters with her partner, which family members reframed as jokes between friends. It was only after discovering a hidden, unopened letter that she realised this was not simply a misunderstanding, but a quiet avoidance of queer affection. This experience became central to the project.
Using layered compositions inspired by double film exposure, Mercury overlaps figures from separate photographs to reconstruct gestures of intimacy, including kissing, embracing, and holding. Braille is embossed at points of overlap, incorporating excerpts from love letters exchanged between a queer couple.
Through image, language, and touch, Love Letter considers how intimacy persists within ambiguity, and what remains unseen, unread
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mercury is a Chinese artist currently based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Working across mixed media, her practice examines how personal narratives are shaped and interpreted by social frameworks. Drawing from experiences across different cultural contexts, she is interested in how artworks reveal or reshape these narratives. She uses photography and embodied performance to explore themes of self-representation and the complexities of human connection. Her work inhabits spaces of ambiguity. In her work, private experiences intersect with public expectations and identities remain fluid. In her Love Letter series,, she investigates how experiences that resist visibility can be encountered and shared through tactile forms of engagement.
© Mercury