Ziqi Chen (b. 2001) is a London-based artist whose practice explores synthetic memory and liminal space. Drawing from an ongoing archive of dreams, she translates subconscious reinterpretations of reality into paintings that examine underlying states of collapse, surveillance, eeriness and loss. Working primarily in oil and acrylic, alongside drawing and printmaking, she uses layered surfaces that conceal and reveal—echoing the iterative structures of memory. Her scenes are predominantly nocturnal, suspended in spectral encounters and dislocated from linear narrative. Across these works, altered landscapes, overlooked thresholds, and paranormal traces converge through the surreal logic of dreaming.
Chen’s interest in spatial ambiguity is informed by Marc Augé’s concept of non-places -
transitory zones of circulation, consumption, and detachment. Growing up amid hyper-
speed urbanisation, she became attuned to the perceptual hybridity of simulated
environments shaped by landscapes where the artificial and the everyday are inseparable. Formative encounters with constructed, self-contained settings, including hyper-commercial mall complexes, modular residential compounds, and recreational theme parks, shaped her understanding of place as mutable, layered, and psychologically charged.