fanbxooo / 范不响, from Chengdu, Sichuan.
I was around one and a half years old when I started learning to walk, holding onto a yellow partition in my family’s old apartment in Yulin. I remember stumbling again and again, falling onto the small bed beside it, face-first into the pillow—then pushing myself back up with tiny hands, full of curiosity. That was probably the first time I ever questioned something:
why couldn’t I be a puppy, or some other animal?
Why did I have to learn how to walk like a human?
I wondered—if I just kept crawling forever, would I never have to fall?
These memories are still vivid. In primary school, I would tie myself to that same yellow partition with a rope, mimicking the daily routines of mammals from nature documentaries. That was how I welcomed my grandparents home. I didn’t have a tail, so I used my right hand to pretend I had one. Every time I saw the glass door on the partition, I’d remember sleeping beside my grandpa before I turned four. At night, he would gently rub and twist each of my fingers until I fell asleep. He told me it was to help them grow long and slender.
As I got a bit older, I’d sit beside that yellow partition working on animal puzzles, drawing topless mermaids with watercolor markers, sketching a kingdom of women without clothes. When my parents came to visit, they’d leave their bags by the partition and sit in the room behind it, eating and chatting about things that didn’t involve me. I’d always be so excited to see them—so curious about what kind of week or month they’d had. I had no real concept of the adult world. But that excitement slowly turned into resentment as I grew up.
That apartment in Yulin was the beginning of everything.
There were people I loved. Animals I loved. Moments of real happiness. And so many math test papers I failed and secretly stashed away.
Until I was 24, I never moved. Except for living in dorms, Yulin was my only home.
After my grandpa passed away, the house had to be renovated. I couldn’t bear to remove that yellow partition. I was obsessed with everything it held—
the memories, the light that passed through it in the late afternoon, casting patterns on the opposite wall, the smell of old wood starting to rot.
But eventually, I had to move.
I had to break away from it all.
It felt almost forced—like saying goodbye to a part of myself.
So I created Svto4elv to remember that yellow partition.
To remember that home.
To remember those images that instantly surface in my mind, as soon as I think of them.
Like a set of coordinates in a virtual space—
I lived at Building 17, Unit 4, Apartment 11.
170411 became the safe house for everything I create.
Even though I’ve never received any formal art education,
I know with absolute certainty—
whenever I sit down to draw in that imaginary 170411,
time passes so quickly.
I get to escape reality for a while.
Just me, at my one-meter-wide desk,
spending the whole day alone,
without having to say my usual phrase:
"I’m so bored."
After I moved, I went back once to grab some things.
The yellow partition was gone.
The room was flooded with light—
it felt like it was telling me:
“It’s okay. Let it go.
It’s time to do whatever you want to do—starting now.”