Dregs: Soup without Water
Solo exhibition at Ox Warehouse | 02.13 - 03.15.2026
Exhibition Poster
Dregs: Soup without Water
Dregs: the
last drop, grit, grain, molecule, smeared across the bottom of the pot.
After all the soup has been drunk, there remains what is left over. The
consistency is soft and wet, the dregs squish and squelch when touched,
its body disintegrating, almost no longer there. Now debris, the
goodness of its body has already been drained, the dregs to be
discarded.
In Cantonese soup-making practices, the jyu or tong
zaa is often left uneaten. But what are the possibilities of what
remains? Reflecting on her four-week residency at OxWarehouse in 2025,
Zhu Biyi grasps onto the leftovers of the past; returning to Macau for
the residency after ten years in the Netherlands, Zhu uses the processes
and materialities of Cantonese soup to explore modes of time-travel,
between places, relationships and lifetimes. After drinking the soup,
the dregs become the evidence of what has been absorbed into the body,
into the atmosphere. Taking what would ordinarily be discarded, Zhu
transforms dregs into tangible shapes, dissolving and reforming ideas of
memory, kinship, migration and waste.
Curator and Academic Respondent: Vivien Chan
Organiser: Ox Warehouse
Venue Support: Cultural Affairs Bureau
The 3+0/0+0 Artist-in-Residence Programme project was supported by the Cultural Development Fund of the Macau SAR
The artist's presentation was supported by the Voucher International Monderian funds
Image documentation: Cathie Lam
Exhibition Views
Paper Tonic 纸方
Handmade paper of soup dregs |
207 x126 cm | 2025 -2-26
After the soup is consumed, its essence permeates the body, entering the organs. It nourishes the skin, body, and spirit. The leftover soup residue, once the remaining moisture has evaporated, reveals textures and structures reminiscent of bodily tissue.
Materials used in this work were
sourced from Chinese herbal medicine shops in Macau during the artist’s
residency, while others came from local Chinese grocery stores in
Amsterdam and Antwerp, which import ingredients from the Canton region.
These
herbs and vegetables include: Chicken Bone Grass,
Lotus Leaf, Dried Tangerine Peel, Lotus Seeds, Coix Seeds (raw), Coix
Seeds (cooked), Adzuki Beans, Chinese Yam, Winter Melon, Dried Jujube,
Fresh Burdock Root, Ginger, Euryale Seeds, Southern Red Dates, Poria
Mushroom, Dried Chinese Yam, Lion’s Mane Mushroom, Monk Fruit, Dried
Kapok Fruit, Dried Lotus Seed Pods, Dried Lily Bulbs, Carrot, Celery,
Sea Coconut, Lablab Bean, Black-eyed pea, etc.
Kin Knots 緣結
Fishing line, red date pits, longan shells and pits, peanut shells |
180 x 220 cm | 2025 -2026
During my residency in Macau, I began exploring a range of crafts that inspired me, including fishnet-making. Created after my time in Macau, this work reflects the skills and insights I gathered there. The bonds between relatives are like an invisible net, each tie tracing the passage of time.
Soup as Fluid Archive Workshop
湯 · 流動檔案工作坊
Documentary, HD-digital video |
16:9 | colour | no sound | no subtitles |
3 min | 2025 -2026
-
Holding in Hand
stoneware clay | 11 bowls in different sizes | 2026
Special thanks: Studio Jie Chen
A Cantonese soup-making workshop themed “Sharing a Pot of Soup, Sharing a Bond” was held in June, 2025, at “butterroom space”. As the host and residency artist, Biyi invited participants to collaboratively prepare a soup, each contributing one or two memorial ingredients of their choice. The workshop intertwined the artist’s personal story of a “soup of memory” from her upbringing with participants’ own experiences. In response to Macau’s humid climate, the group cooked a traditional soup, Qū Shī Jiàn Pí Tāng (祛濕健脾湯), to remove dampness and support digestion together.
The session concluded with participants sharing the collaboratively created soup, allowing the body to become a living medium for exchange, memory, and cultural transmission.
(This workshop continued beyond its initial session in Macau and has since taken place in Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Belgium, with participants from diverse cultural backgrounds.)
Wetness
濕
Documentary, HD-digital video |
16:9 | colour | sound | no subtitles |
8’29’’ | 2025 -2026
What is Macau’s humidity like? What kind of wetness is it?
Filmed during a heavy, rainy, and humid season, this video follows the artist as she wanders through the streets of Macau day and night, moving between indoors and outdoors, capturing shifting light, reflections, and the subtle rhythms and textures of the residential landscape.