ARTIST STATEMENT
Mercury is an artist working across hybrid and cross-disciplinary approaches. From a female perspective, her practice explores hidden cultural phenomena shaped by ambiguity within different social environments. She often works with mixed media to express complex and contradictory conditions.
For her, photography holds a paradoxical quality: it freezes a moment while allowing it to extend beyond time. Building on this, she captures moments that reveal forms of existence shaped by absence—of language, recognition, or visibility. Treasure is further developed through layering, printing, painting, and hand embossing, engaging both visual and tactile perception.
Her project Love Letter, which Treasure is part of, reflects on the visible yet concealed nature of queer intimacy within the cultural context of China, while also addressing broader questions of how affection is expressed and understood. The work originates from a personal experience. Letters exchanged between the artist and her partner were found hidden by her family, this act of quiet avoidance became central to the project.
Through layered photographic images, figures appear both connected and separated, meeting through gestures such as touching and holding. Braille is embossed at points of overlap, forming a real love letter between a queer couple that may first seem unfamiliar or unreadable. Through this shift in perception, Treasure invites viewers to encounter intimacy beyond assumption, and to reconsider what is seen, felt, and understood.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mercury is an artist based in Scotland, working across photography and mixed media to explore themes of intimacy, perception, and hidden cultural narratives. She holds an MA in Illustration from Edinburgh College of Art, UK, and a BA in Digital Media Art from Shenzhen University, China. Her cross-cultural background continues to inform her approach, bridging different visual languages and cultural understandings. Mercury’s work has been exhibited internationally. Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Getxophoto Festival in Algorta, Spain (2026), WHISPERer at London Craft Week (2026), Archetypes at Glena Art Studio, London (2026), and Focus at 34 Gallery, Zimbabwe (2026). Previous exhibitions include Echoes of Time at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2025) and a selection of works presented at the Shanghai Art Museum (2024). Through her evolving practice, Mercury continues to investigate how images can hold space for complex and often overlooked forms of female experience.
© Mercury.N