The Word-blocking Mechanism



Role
Designer&Maker: Heshan Li @hazy_li_
Photography: DAXI
Model: WUJI
Make up& Hair: Cynthia @shiyu2034

The emergence of word-blocking mechanisms on the internet has severely restricted my expression. I must constantly revise my work to avoid blocked words, even preemptively censoring my thoughts—an absurd process. The subtle expansion of these mechanisms limits expression space, gradually conditioning people to accept censorship as their minds are quietly controlled. Silence becomes complicity.

I tried to present the silence, the result of condoning the development of the word-blocking mechanisms, and future projections. Everyone has been equipped with the word-blocking filter, who cannot speak words any of the blocked words. Every time when they try to speak something similar to those blocked words, they will be warned and the filter will be tighter.

In my works, I explored this dystopian reality. I tried to show the sharp confrontation between people and the huge review machine through the heterogeneity of "instruments".

Holder

By using the elements of people infested by face-huggers in the movie Alien, I tried to express the suffocation, parasitism and the discomfort of people being controlled by machine, such as people being controlled by the review machine, deprived of their expression space and forced to be silent.

Media: ice, transparent resin, SAP, water color
Size: 43*33*29cm
Year: 2022

Skinner

Finally, even what we hide beneath our skin was stripped away.

Media: leather, brass, PMMA, embroidery thread
Size: 26*18*5cm
Year: 2022

Pulper

Media: leather, brass, PMMA, embroidery thread, elastic thread
Size: 35*14*7cm
Year: 2022

Keeper

By using the elements of people infested by a mouth yoke put on a yenta in the Middle Ages, I tried to express the suffocation, parasitism and the discomfort of people being controlled by machine, such as people being controlled by the review machine, deprived of their expression space and forced to be silent.

Media: ice, aluminum, EVA, PVC, PMMA, Lacquer
Size: 60*45*30cm
Year: 2022