Deyi (Evelyn) Zeng
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Artist Statement

Born with Tetralogy of Fallot, I have relied on medical care to stay alive. The treatments that sustain me have also altered my body and my sense of ownership over it, leaving traces that extend beyond visible scars.

Through photography, medical objects, and biological models, I explore how care and constraint coexist within medicine. My work gives form to the uncertainty of living in a body that feels intimately mine, yet remains dependent on interventions beyond my control.

About the artist

Deyi Zeng

Deyi (Evelyn) Zeng (b. 2003) is a Chinese visual artist from Beijing based in Chicago. She received her BA in Media Arts Production from Emerson College and is pursuing an MFA in Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Through photography, installation, and archival materials, she examines how illness and migration affect a person’s sense of identity and home. Her work imagines a time before memory takes shape, when experiences the mind cannot recall may already have left their traces in the body.

Her work has been exhibited at Heaven Gallery and the Zhou B Art Center in Chicago, the University of Arkansas School of Art in Fayetteville, Echo & Frame Art Space in Shanghai, and Beijing’s 798 Art District.

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