Zihao Hazel Mei is an Edinburgh-based artist and landscape architect, currently teaching at the University of Edinburgh. With a deep passion for exploring the intersection of art, design, and environmental studies, she employs walking, mapping, and embodied technology as integral tools for research and creation.
Her artwork delves into the realms of space, time, materiality, and bodily experiences through maps, drawings, moving images, and mixed media works.
Her teaching spans accredited undergraduate and postgraduate landscape architecture programs at Edinburgh College of Art, where she actively contribute to teach and develop critical communication and representation methods. Her landscape design background lends insight into the anthropological, phenomenological, and digital dimensions of contemporary landscape design, enriching her creative process.
Her works have been showcased in publications and exhibitions, including China Creative Design Yearbook (2013), Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize exhibitions (2020-2021), and Studio Magazine 20 'Heretic' (2021).
Shadow Walk - Solitude in Tandem
Conducted during an artist residency at BKN, this project explores the act of walking as a means to reflect on the dynamics of isolation and connection with the environment. It involves a series of silent, 20-minute walks where one artist leads the path, guided by prompts of seeking isolation or connection, while the "shadow" (Hazel Mei - the artist who conceived the project) follows in silence, documenting the experience using a walking trail app and a LiDAR scanning app.
During my residency with WAP24, I explored a few ideas.
Shadow Walk - Solitude in Tandem is the core project I developed at BKN. It built up on my continuous research around walking and embodied technologies.
PUT YOUR MOUSE OVER AND CLICK ON the images below to learn more about each project.
The Contour Line Drawing by Matches
Using a bag of unwanted matches left by a former artist at BKN, I traced a fragile contour line across the cliff by the Baltic Sea - shaped by the wind, the uneven surface, and even ants climbing over it. As the wind constantly blew parts fo the line away, I felt a strange calmness in the imperfection and disruption. It reminded me of how lines in the landscape, like in life, are always shifting, shaped by forces beyond our control. For the ants, this line became an obstacle or a path - something to navigate.
Fluoxetone
Xin li de shi tou luo di le
I explored te intersection of nature and mental health. Each day I took my fluoxetine for depression I have been struggling with for years, I replace the pill with a small stone collected from the island, reflecting on the emotional burdens we carry and release. The stones now fill ane entire blister pack (a month dose ), becoming a visual metaphor for healing, routine, and the weight of depression.
A Concertina Walk
This project explores the intersection of movement, sensory perception, and drawing through the use of a mini concertina book as a dynamic canvas.
A Sky Piece
This piece documents the fleeting boundary between the clouds and the other atmosphere observed during a flight from Edinburgh to Stockholm. Seated by the window near the plane's wing, I captured the shifting edge of the sky, translating the experience of moving through air into a continuous line. Upon arriving at my destination, I installed this line my studio wall and naming it 'a line between Edinburgh and Stockholm'.