Ding Shilun (b.1998, Guangzhou) constructs imagined and fantastical tableaux that – through the depiction of beguiling figures – render the altered states that oscillate in our minds. Produced for this exhibition, Late Night Cruise (2022), depicts a treasure-filled boat lost at sea, an alluring place the artist describes as ‘cold, dark and dangerous,’ yet not without ‘light and hope.’ Incorporating figures both human and other-worldly, Ding bridges languages of expressionism, surrealism and ‘manga’ to distil layered and conflicting worlds that he names ‘reflections of reality.’