Glimmer is an interactive installation using Xbox Kinect, inspired by anime magical girl transformation sequences. Reflecting upon the hyper-aesthetisation, commodification and objectification of Asian femininity within the popular aesthetics of anime and kawaii. Considering the artist’s experience growing up mixed race (Chinese/British) in the 90s seeking out images of Asian identity via popular media and how the undeniably alluring yet heavily mediated imagery of 90s anime shaped her ideas of self, beauty and cultural identity. Presenting an experience where the viewer finds themselves crystalized in the liminal state of transformation, caught between normality and magic, between physical and digital, it encourages viewers to embody and consider the experience of the Asiatic female as a hyper-aestheticised form. 

Sian Fan is an award winning interdisciplinary artist working between Essex and London where she is artist in residence at Somerset House Studios. From 2021-22 she was the Digital Wonderlands artist in residence at the V&A Museum. She is also alumna of Sarabande Foundation where she was in residence from 2020-21. A graduate of the Fine Art Masters course at Central Saint Martins, she was awarded the prestigious Mona Hatoum Scholarship and was nominated for the Nova Award. In 2014 she graduated from the University of Brighton's BA Performance and Visual Art Dance course, where she was awarded the prize for Outstanding Creative Achievement.

She has exhibited internationally with institutions including Tate Modern, Mutek, FACT Liverpool, and the V&A, as well as producing work with Channel 4, the BBC and Facebook/Meta. Most recently she has produced a new commission for the major exhibition CUTE at Somerset House. Sian also does lectures, seminars and discussions and has worked with universities, schools and institutions including UAL, V&A Museum, Norwich University of the Arts, Goldsmiths, DanceEast and Whitechapel Gallery.