echo of self — Zixi Yang Art

Echo of Self

This Linocut work was completed in Scripps College’s Experimental Relief Printing class in the fall of 2023. The theme of the work is inspired by Christina Sharpe’s “Beauty is a Method,” which considers how beauty has created “more livable moments, spaces, and places,” particularly in the midst of violence and antiblackness.

People experience beauty through objects—paintings, sounds, colors, and forms. Zixi calls the emotions people attach to these objects “preferences.” Rather than seeing preference as socially shaped, she views it as instinctive, rooted in one’s Id. Feeling beauty thus becomes a process of discovering the self—beauty as both a method and a tool.

Zixi visualizes this connection between instinct and beauty through personal scenes with her mother and cat, symbols of origin and emotional growth. The composition looks outward from a window, while a ladder—referencing Cai Guo-Qiang’s Sky Ladder—represents exploration and spiritual ascent. At the center lies an ultrasound image of a fetal heartbeat, linking beauty to home, motherhood, and instinct. Circular and linear motifs repeat throughout, expressing continuity and the innate rhythm of human perception.