“To win is to withdraw – a counterintuitive proposition: that victory lies not in domination but in the conscious relinquishment of control.”
The Architecture of Interaction
Interdisciplinary artist Cizzoe Yi Wang stands at the intersection of installation, performance, sculpture, and documentary filmmaking, using her multifaceted practice to probe the invisible systems governing our interactions. Born in China and raised in the UK, she now lives and works in London, bringing a transnational perspective to her art. With formal training in social anthropology, Wang approaches human behavior as a kind of structured improvisation—a constantly shifting choreography of expectations, rules, and subtle negotiations. Her work challenges participants to confront the forces shaping their behavior by staging immersive environments where these social constructs are laid bare.
Rather than merely representing social structures, Wang constructs participatory experiences that immerse viewers in conceptual frameworks. These frameworks often resemble games, designed not for entertainment but for critical reflection. Participants are given simple instructions that generate complex encounters, revealing how we instinctively manage power, control, and cooperation. Her use of poetic text, algorithmic design, and spatial cues guides participants through scenarios where meaning arises from action and reaction, not observation alone. In these moments, art becomes a mirror—less about self-expression and more about collective awareness.
Wang’s artistic voice first took form in the realm of documentary film, where she earned early recognition for her compelling short works. However, the limitations of the medium eventually led her to pursue more immersive and collaborative formats. Her interest in the tensions between ideology, behavior, and identity—rooted in her own cross-cultural upbringing—fueled a desire to move beyond passive storytelling. Live performance and interactive installations offered a more visceral language, allowing her to build dynamic, responsive systems where meaning unfolds in real-time. Through both public and peer engagement, she shaped her evolving practice into one that not only observes but invites participation, risk, and transformation.
Cizzoe Yi Wang: Rewriting the Rules of Engagement
Central to Wang’s practice is the notion that social life mimics performance, governed by invisible frameworks that we follow—often unconsciously. In her work, she makes these structures visible, creating conditions where participants must engage with unspoken norms and confront their own impulses within systems of order. Her process begins with conceptual design, focusing on how people interact under constraint. She constructs hybridized tools—part performance score, part social contract—that invite individuals to navigate constructed environments with freedom that is always conditional. These environments are often stark and minimalist, allowing the human element to take precedence and inviting complexity to emerge from simplicity.
A consistent theme in Wang’s work is the tension between agency and surrender. Through her carefully orchestrated interactions, participants are pushed to consider the emotional cost of control and the paradox of leadership. Her installations frame decision-making as an existential struggle: Is power something to be seized, or relinquished? This question is explored not just theoretically but physically, as viewers become players enmeshed in shifting hierarchies. Her work poses uncomfortable provocations: What does it mean to win? Can withdrawal be an act of defiance? What strength lies in surrender? These questions are embedded in the architecture of her performances, offering no easy answers but opening space for contemplation.
One of her most impactful projects, Triangle, exemplifies her approach to group dynamics and symbolic play. In this participatory installation, individuals are connected through a system of signal lights, forming and dissolving temporary alliances under a framework that mimics political and emotional structures. As dominance and submission oscillate, participants become part of a living diagram—both controllers and controlled. This piece marked a pivotal moment in Wang’s practice, distilling her core concept: “To win is to withdraw.” The phrase encapsulates her broader inquiry into resistance, suggesting that stepping back from competition can be the most radical form of agency. Rather than framing power as conquest, Triangle reimagines it as intentional detachment.
Between Movement and Stillness
Wang’s career has been shaped not only by introspection but by community and collaboration. Early on, she immersed herself in the art scene by attending exhibitions and responding to open calls, seeking to connect with others who shared her curiosity about systems and structures. These experiences broadened her understanding of how collective energy fuels creative practice. One formative moment was her lead performance at The Place, a prominent contemporary dance institute in London, where she experienced firsthand the transformative effect of shared physical presence. The live performance, witnessed by an audience of over 300, reinforced her belief in the power of collective engagement and spontaneous transformation.
Influenced by pioneers of performative art such as Yoko Ono, Allan Kaprow, and Francis Alÿs, Wang’s work aligns with traditions of socially engaged practice while remaining deeply personal in tone. These artists’ experiments with temporality, participation, and direct audience involvement resonate with her desire to expose the subtleties of human behavior. Yet Wang forges her own path by emphasizing psychological negotiation and emotional vulnerability within controlled environments. She is particularly interested in how meaning is created through silence, gesture, and the ineffable tension between participants. These qualities underpin her approach to performance as not just an artistic form, but a mode of social inquiry.
In her daily process, Wang values solitude during the early conceptual phase of her projects. She cultivates an uninterrupted environment to allow intuitive and structural experimentation to take place. Once the core idea has formed, she invites feedback from fellow artists, using critique as a tool for refinement rather than disruption. While each of her works takes on a different form—be it installation, video, or performance—the selection of medium always emerges in response to the concept. This approach ensures that the aesthetic remains in service to the inquiry, rather than dictating its shape. Her work avoids spectacle for its own sake, favoring clarity, focus, and a deliberate intimacy that allows viewers to experience vulnerability alongside critique.
Cizzoe Yi Wang: The Game Beyond the Game
Among Wang’s current projects, Hockey and Go represents a compelling evolution of her thematic concerns. This forthcoming work merges the athletic intensity of hockey with the cerebral strategy of the ancient board game Go, crafting a unique performance that investigates the interplay between visible conflict and invisible negotiation. Within this hybrid environment, players engage in physical and mental contests, navigating not only the formal rules of each game but also the fluid, unspoken agreements that emerge between opponents. The piece serves as a symbolic terrain for exploring how we internalize competition, what it reveals about social organization, and how collaboration might arise even in oppositional contexts.
Hockey and Go seeks to unsettle traditional perceptions of rivalry by examining how players read each other’s intentions, build non-verbal rapport, and test unacknowledged boundaries. These silent exchanges often carry more significance than overt gestures, forming the backbone of human communication under pressure. The performance contrasts brute force with strategic calm, pushing participants to embody contradiction: to act decisively while listening carefully, to dominate while yielding, to assert without speaking. It is within these contradictions that Wang locates the tension she aims to expose—the desire to win versus the deeper yearning for mutual recognition and understanding.
This upcoming work also reinforces Wang’s central artistic philosophy: that games can serve as precise analogues for larger social systems. In Hockey and Go, the metaphor is layered—bodies in motion echo societal conflict, while the quiet rituals of the board game evoke inner contemplation and relational nuance. By intertwining these two distinct modes of engagement, Wang constructs a performance that is as analytical as it is affective. Viewers are not asked merely to watch, but to question the forces that shape ambition, victory, and coexistence. Once again, Wang proposes that the true triumph lies not in mastery, but in the delicate art of stepping back.
