Artist Statement

TEAR SET is an installation, a crying machine, distributing artificially fabricated tear replicate of the artist’s own tears. The work creates a mediated, collective experience of intimacy with the artist by inviting audiences to wipe away the salty sadness liquid.
The artificial tear is made of purified water, salt, protein (lactoferrin and lysozyme), carboxymethyl cellulose and sugar. It mirrors the concentration of the artist’s biological tears according to a series of chemical analyses. Sharing the materiality of emotion production, the tear is a hybrid of elaborated sentiments and indifferent mass production. It weaves materiality and narratives into a social experiment where the simulation, expression and records of emotion become the source of affection. xxxxxxxxxinliu.com/#/tear-set

• Xin Liu (b. 1991, Xinjiang, China), MIT Media Lab, USA xxxxxxxxxinliu.com