Zhenyi Zhou

Gu Spirit – Post-Human Witchcraft

Zhenyi Zhou is a fashion designer from China, recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Her practice explores the intersection of fashion and digital technologies, often working with 3D programs to develop concept-driven designs. Inspired by biological forms and spiritual ideas, she creates garments that reflect a deep interest in transformation, material experimentation, and alternative aesthetics.

“Gu Spirit – Post-Human Witchcraft” reimagines the ancient Chinese folklore of “Gu,” a tale of poisonous lifeforms sealed in a vessel until only one survives. This myth becomes a metaphor for endurance, pain, and transformation, reshaped here through the language of fashion and design.

The project presents sculptural garments that merge 3D-printed bones, silicone membranes, and reclaimed textiles into hybrid forms. Displayed on mannequins, each piece appears as a relic of a future body, neither fully human nor insect, but an artefact of metamorphosis and survival.

Gu Spirit questions conventional beauty and offers a post-human perspective: to bear pain rather than erase it, to transform scars into strength, and to merge biology with technology in search of new aesthetics. It invites visitors into a dark, immersive space where myth and future design intersect.