Kai Zhang
Heya
1 x Side-opening wood-grain slipcase
This photobook emerges from a sustained and intimate dialogue with the photographic artist. The work interrogates the act of looking—specifically, the position of a third-party gaze directed toward the female subject, where observation becomes entangled with projection and control.
Influenced by Perfect Blue, the design translates psychological tension into material form, negotiating boundaries between exposure and concealment.
The slipcase adopts a rigid wood-grain structure rendered in a concrete-toned palette, evoking the duality of enclosure—at once protective and restrictive. Architectural in its presence, it suggests a threshold that both guards and isolates. The peephole and lock motif operate as metaphors of mediated vision, implicating the viewer in an act of quiet surveillance.
Encased within, the book is wrapped in translucent cotton paper, diffusing visibility and softening the act of viewing. This material choice gestures toward an interior space—intimate, protected, and ambiguously private—where the subject resists full exposure.