Words: Junshu Gu (@ikuulikki)

September 24 2023

With C, in a forest,

searching for ourselves.

After the rain, a museum emerged.

Masterpieces hung inside.

Behind them, a small chapel.

Sunlight pierced through.

A miracle.

A whisper:

“Enter with a smile. Or laughing.”

Only later did I learn:

The sadness would be punished here.

We laughed,

stepped inside.

But the magnetic pull inside

dragged everyone to the left.

Every step forward,

a struggle.

November 5 2023

Gathered chestnuts in a church

all night.

February 3 2024

Standing on Tower Bridge, London.

Eastward lies the past.

Westward, the future.

3 July 2024

The office is housed within a brutalist structure,

Lunchtime—resting in the theatre.

Accidentally discovered a hidden chamber

beneath the kitchen stove.

An anteater lives inside.

25 July 2024

Q joined a company to lead a small team

in the study of urban data.

Their focus:

the movement patterns of stray cats in the city.

At their symposium,

I urged them to persist—

some projects, however whimsical,

hold unseen significance.

16 September 2024

Carnivorous trees.

Their leaves spiraled into human skin like screws,

entering the body, never leaving.

17 September 2024

M applying to British art schools.

He transformed his paintings into fluffy little sculptures.

They were adorable.

Praised him, wished him luck,

but asked him not to choose RCA.

About Junshu Gu

Junshu Gu is an artist, writer and flâneur based in London, UK. Intertwining discourses around labyrinths, escapism, and post-truth, her work is rooted in rhizome theory and draws from her 13 years of experience in interdisciplinary, culture-related media work, demonstrating profound expertise. Her practice incorporates painting, sculpture, and time-based media, appearing minimal and abstract, yet formally lithesome and precise.

Borrowing from the vocabulary of New Wave film, the anti-novel, and minimal music, Junshu’s concerns repeatedly revolve around questions of anxiety, pessoptimism, and the hidden initiative in chaos. She strives to address the allegorical narrative potential that arises from the edge of chaos in the real world, aiming to examine the absence of the female flâneur and the glass ceiling for women in contemporary discourse. She holds a master’s degree in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art and has exhibited at various venues in London and internationally. Additionally, her moving image work has been screened at Tate Modern Lates and received numerous awards from various film festivals worldwide. She is currently based in London, continuing her artistic practice at the Conditions Studio Programme.