Figurative Group Sketches
During her time in Shanghai, Dandi Gu used group portraiture as a means to explore the dynamic relationship between individuals and their social environments. Through people-watching, she studied how individuals navigated public spaces—their gestures, attire, and the social identities they carried. Simultaneously, she engaged in speculative exercises, imagining the possibilities of identity exchange and using visual narratives to examine the lived experiences of different social roles and their underlying cultural significance.This creative approach, rooted in both observation and imagination, allowed her work to extend beyond mere representation of form. Instead, she sought to capture the transient presence of individuals within fluid social contexts, embedding her portraits with subtle narratives of social interaction. By utilizing the immediacy and storytelling potential of sketching, she constructed visual compositions that highlight the nuanced and often tension-filled relationship between people and their surroundings, offering a new perspective on everyday life.