Waking up from a slumber, a little girl wakes up to find, on the corner of her dresser, a silver ring with a raven design biting a gemstone. She puts it on her finger and sits down in her chair, spinning around while enchanted by the ring’s appearance. On the wall next to her, a poster bears the text: ‘The cold shine of silver and the soft light of stones turn the details into symbols that you want to return to again and again.’
Chenyu Wang’s VVS Layers (2025-26) is a four-part video installation exploring the relationship between commodified desires and personal identity. Each piece features the girl’s encounter with one of four gemstone rings, seemingly at different times in her life, which mentally transport her into a series of introspective dreamscapes. These comprise of a silver raven ring, a gold ring shaped like a cat, a ring set with diamonds, and another with purple gemstones. In this state, she meets one of four animals or creatures that serve as metaphors of consumption: a raven, a black cat with different coloured eyes, a mouse with an illuminated tail, and a giant spider.
Interpreted as a series of layers representing the progressive stages of one’s desire, the girl’s journey through each dreamscape leads her towards an epiphany about her sense of identity and the possessions she craves, a message recalling Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am) (1987). Occasionally, the frame cuts to her dancing on different floating islands, each adorned with a sculpture of the creature she meets.
In the first layer, the girl witnesses a gathering of ravens, commonly associated with spiritual awakening, transformation, and purveyors of truth. In the second, her encounter with a black cat is much more joyful, suggesting a euphoric stage of consumer desire. Meanwhile, the third layer hints at addiction, loss, and a desire for creature comforts like living in a large mansion.
The imagery of gemstones with their internal reflected layers offers a counterpart to the girl’s complex inner world, but also the systems of commodification in a capitalist society. By referencing the VVS diamond clarity grade in the title, whose appearance is practically flawless to the naked eye unless viewed under magnification, Wang highlights how placing artificial meanings to traits and features in commodities contributes to the creation of social hierarchies in perceptions of value. For example, the De Beers diamond cartel launched in the 1930s a marketing campaign that invented the tradition of diamond engagement rings. Such consumerist themes were prominently explored by Andy Warhol in his Brillo Boxes (1963-64) and more recently in the felt installations of Lucy Sparrow, both blurring the boundaries between everyday objects and fine art.
Coming full circle, in the final layer, our girl has become a designer of rings, her desk cluttered with rejected sketches. But the setting is reminiscent of an investigator’s office, filled with case files and pinboards. In one frame, her sketches are pinned to a wall and connected with red string, suggesting a conspiracy within the world of gemstones. One pertinent design incorporates a spider’s body for the ring’s setting with a gemstone taking place of the abdomen. In the related dreamscape, the girl is chased by a spider through a fungi-infested landscape. She ultimately defeats the spider, freeing herself from the mental web of her own desires and from society’s capitalist social structures.
Still Image of “VVS Layers”, 2025–2026. Courtesy of the artist.
從沉睡中醒來，一個小女孩發現她的梳妝檯角落放著一枚銀戒指，戒面上有一隻銜著寶石的渡鴉造型。她將戒指戴上手指，坐進椅子裡，一邊旋轉，一邊被戒指的外觀所迷住。在她身旁的牆上，一張海報寫著：「銀的冷光與寶石的柔光，將細節化為你一再回望的符號。」
王晨宇的《VVS Layers》（2025至2026年）是一件四頻道錄像裝置，探討商品化的慾望與個人身份之間的關係。每一部分都呈現了女孩與四枚寶石戒指之一的相遇，似乎發生在她生命中的不同時刻，這些戒指將她的心智帶入一系列內省的夢境。這些夢境分別對應一枚銀色渡鴉戒指、一枚貓形黃金戒指、一枚鑲有鑽石的戒指，以及另一枚鑲有紫色寶石的戒指。在這種狀態中，她遇見了四種動物或生物，它們作為消費的隱喻：一隻渡鴉、一雙異色瞳的黑貓、一隻尾巴發光的老鼠，以及一隻巨大的蜘蛛。
女孩穿越每個夢境的旅程，被詮釋為一系列代表慾望漸進階段的層次，引導她走向對自身身份與所渴望之物的一種頓悟。這一訊息令人聯想到Barbara Kruger的《Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am)》（1987）。偶爾，畫面切換到她在不同浮空島嶼上起舞，每一座島上都裝飾著她所遇見的生物的雕塑。
在第一層中，女孩目睹了一群渡鴉的聚會，渡鴉通常與靈性覺醒、轉化和真理的傳遞者相關。第二層中，她與黑貓的相遇則歡愉得多，暗示了消費慾望中一種欣快的階段。與此同時，第三層則暗示了成癮、失落，以及對物質舒適的渴求，例如居住在一座大宅之中。
寶石與其內部反射層的意象，既是女孩複雜內在世界的對應，也是資本主義社會中商品化體系的對應。透過在標題中引用VVS鑽石淨度等級（肉眼幾近完美無瑕，除非在放大下檢視），王晨宇凸顯了將人為意義賦予商品特質與特徵，如何有助於在價值感知中形成社會階層。舉例而言，戴比爾斯鑽石卡特爾在1930年代發起了一場行銷活動，發明了鑽石訂婚戒指的傳統。這類消費主義主題曾由Andy Warhol在《Brillo Boxes》（1963至1964年）中進行了突出的探索，近年則見於Lucy Sparrow的毛氈裝置中，兩者都模糊了日常物件與精緻藝術之間的界線。
回到起點，在最後一層中，我們的小女孩已成為一名戒指設計師，她的桌面散落著被淘汰的草圖。但這個場景令人聯想起調查員的辦公室，佈滿了案件檔案與釘板。在一個畫面中，她的草圖被釘在牆上並以紅線相連，暗示了寶石世界中的一種陰謀。其中一個重要的設計將蜘蛛的身體作為戒台，以寶石取代腹部的位置。在相關的夢境中，女孩被一隻蜘蛛追趕，穿越一片真菌叢生的景觀。她最終擊敗了蜘蛛，將自己從自身慾望的心靈之網以及社會的資本主義結構中解放出來。
Still Image of “VVS Layers”, 2025–2026. Courtesy of the artist.
Text By 撰文 x Nigel Ip
Published on 20th August 2026
