Ethan (Chengxuan) is an artist and practice-based PhD candidate at the Edinburgh College of Art. His research focuses on the complex relationships between censorship, power, and art. It integrates theories on how power operates as an omnipresent force within social networks and discourse systems, functioning to maintain social order and control over individuals. The study also investigates the fluid nature of power as it infiltrates human behavior and cultural production, forming a self-sustaining social mechanism.

Through printmaking and installation art, his work aims to translate both overt and covert power structures into artistic language. The research examines how art can serve as a medium for revealing and interrogating the inherent tensions between discipline and freedom. Additionally, it explores how censorship triggers self-censorship and internalized restraint within the artist's psyche, leading to the conscious avoidance of sensitive topics during the creative process. This internalized self-surveillance complicates artistic expression, constituting a psychological response to external power. The creative practice seeks to comprehend and articulate the subtle dynamics of artists' psychological and creative processes under censorship, while exploring the potential of art as a site of resistance and disruption within systems of social discipline and control.