At the Rexhibit Artist Talk on August 30, 2026, Ai Deng described a change in her outlook: “I’ve learned to let go a little.” This was more than a change of mood. Moving to London, living independently and studying at the Royal College of Art all played a part. So did the uncertainty of finding work after graduation. Her work has gradually shifted from dark fables and a sense of meaninglessness towards nature, companionship and a lighter tone. The circumstances that support her work have changed along with it.
Born in Beijing and now based in London, Deng works in illustration, design and visual art. Her earlier projects often used fictional stories to address real-life pressures. Begun in 2023, An Anonymous Gift depicts a society inhabited by fish-people and goose-people. The fish-people rush into a factory, where they are pressed into identical blocks. The goose-people carry their parents up a mountain with no clear destination. Labor, reproduction, care for aging parents and collective beliefs become the subjects of a fable for adults. The imagery looks playful, but the rules governing this world are unforgiving.
A hand-drawn animation made in 2024 turns this pressure inward. It opens with a mannequin sitting motionless before a wall. Cracks in the wall gradually become a city, a society and then the universe, before everything dissolves into ink. At the time, Deng felt trapped by a sense of meaninglessness, preoccupied with humanity’s insignificance in the universe. The film approaches these concerns through absurdity, without trying to resolve them. Human existence might amount to a drop of ink in a locksmith’s advertisement on a wall. The humor of this ending makes an otherwise overwhelming anxiety easier to face.
Finishing the film helped Deng release some of her pent-up feelings. Life in London also changed what she noticed around her. She began cooking for herself, taking care of everyday tasks and establishing her own routine. She came to recognize that she could not remain absorbed in abstract thoughts about meaninglessness. There were practical things to do. These experiences did not answer the questions in her earlier work, but they changed how she approached them.
This change became clearer in Tree! Tree! Tree!, her graduation project at the Royal College of Art. It began with a broad question: how do people connect with the world? Rather than answering immediately, Deng gradually narrowed her attention to trees. A hand touching bark makes one kind of connection; roots meeting underground make another. Fallen branches prompted thoughts about drifting, losing balance and finding support again.
She walked through London’s parks, observing and drawing, and assembled collected branches into balanced sculptures. These studies developed into a 12-meter illustrated scroll, sculptures and a book folded to resemble tree rings. Readers open and close the book layer by layer. Connection becomes something experienced through physical actions, rather than an idea the work simply illustrates.
Tree! Tree! Tree! reflects Deng’s move towards work that offers comfort, without replacing criticism with straightforward optimism. The fallen branches still suggest displacement. Their new balance is temporary and has to be carefully constructed. Deng has not so much abandoned her earlier concerns as begun to live with them differently. Where the animation addresses a state of mental paralysis, Tree! Tree! Tree! begins with walking, touching and rearranging.
