No.1 BEST
CHINESE TATTOO SHOP
Treated more as an aesthetic, instead of a language, Chinese characters have made an impact on visual cultures of the West. Westerners like to have Chinese tattoos without actually knowing the cultural context they carry, and sometimes even the actual meaning of the words.
To create an open dialogue on how the West is capitalizing on the “exotic charm” of the Chinese language, this pop-up store project presents a conceptual space that displays a series of tattoos that use original fonts and graphics that Niki designed. These tattoos play with the illegibility and exoticism of Chinese characters while selecting humorous phrases from popular culture and every day slang.
The audience is welcome to lounge around, purchase products with tattoo graphics, and apply the temporary tattoo stickers onto their body, while the artist Niki was playing the role of the shop assistant. The intention behind this interaction is to show how cultures can be reclaimed and repurposed by other cultural backgrounds and perspectives, sometimes creating a cultural disparity in which feeble attempts at understanding can promote misinterpretation and ignorance rather than transparency, respect, and clarity.

ARTIST BOOK
<Untranslation - Disunderstanding - Disinterpretation>
By showing cross-cultural misinterpretations and the intentionality of modified forms of English and Chinese, this artist book is about how cultural signifiers can be repurposed and reclaimed. The book focuses on how cultural disparity and people’s feeble attempts to understand different cultural heritages can promote ignorance, rather than transparency, respect and clarity.
This project won The First Prize of The Cathryn Griffith Award in the Graphic Arts Annual, 2018
ANIMATIONS
Animations created for Laguarda.Low Architects, a NYC-based architecture firm.
VIDEOS
Videos created for Laguarda.Low Architects, a NYC-based architecture firm.
POSTERS
Propaganda
Music Event Posters
Posters Designed for Asian American Writers Workshop
Established in 1991, AAWW is a national not-for-profit arts organization devoted to the creating, publishing, developing and disseminating of creative writing by Asian Americans.
LOGOS
PUBLIC GRAPHIC ARTS PROJECTS
Only One Left Napkin Public Art
Location: Boston MBTA Restroom at Park Street
Audience: MBTA Commuters
During a two week period, all the napkins in the dispensers will be taken out and replaced by a customized napkin roll with only one napkin left. Users of the restroom will be irritated by the lack of napkin and the insulting messages on it. This piece points to the importance of reducing hand napkin waste.
Printed Napkin Public Art
Location: Tufts Dining Hall
Audience: Tufts students and faculty
Based on my observation of large amounts of napkins being wasted in the tufts dining hall, I hope that printing cautionary messages on napkins will bring awareness to the importance of reducing napkin related waste.
Ignorance Party
Treated more as an aesthetic, instead of a language, Chinese characters have made an impact on visual cultures of the West. Many fast fashion brands capitalize on the beauty of the Chinese symbols and slap them on garments simply because they "look cool". Westerners like to buy these products without actually knowing the cultural context they carry, and sometimes even the actual meaning of the words. Playing with this mentality, I designed these patches with ironic metaphors. People will be encouraged to apply these patches to their garments.
This art project creates an open dialogue on how cultural disparity and people’s feeble attempts to understand different cultural heritages can promote ignorance, rather than transparency, respect and clarity.
This project won The First Prize of The Cathryn Griffith Award in the Graphic Arts Annual, 2017
Physical Patches and shirts
SILKSCREEN PRINTS
What You See Is Not What You See
'Beautiful Junk'
“操”
Knock-off logo poster campaign