The Invisible People
Collection:CSM Museum & Study Collection
Date: 2025
Artist: Hongji Yan
Medium: Digital files
Object number: FA.2025.39.CC.1-4
Description1. Project rationale
2. Project portfolio
3. Hellen photos
4. Myles photos
A project that sensitively explores the paradox of being physically present, but made to feel invisible in a professional environment.
Description from the artist:
This project is based on my personal experience during my placement year. At the time, I
often felt invisible in the work environment—as if I was physically there, doing the work,
but not really seen or acknowledged. After COVID, when I returned to China, I noticed a
similar feeling among many young people around me. Even those with strong education
backgrounds were taking on jobs as delivery workers or influencers.
What really caught my attention was how these two roles began to form a strange loop.
Most men became delivery drivers and most women became influencers. After work, the
drivers would spend time watching livestreams. When the influencers finished streaming,
they would order food, often delivered by people just like those watching them. They’re
feeding into each other’s lives, yet both remain invisible in different ways.
Delivery workers are invisible in real life; people rarely remember their faces or names,
even though they show up at our doors every day. We rely on them constantly, yet treat
them like background figures. Influencers, while highly visible online, are often hiding
their true selves behind a screen. Through this project, I want to explore this dual
invisibility, both physical and emotional, and reflect how many young people today are
constantly present, but still not truly seen.
2. Project portfolio
3. Hellen photos
4. Myles photos
A project that sensitively explores the paradox of being physically present, but made to feel invisible in a professional environment.
Description from the artist:
This project is based on my personal experience during my placement year. At the time, I
often felt invisible in the work environment—as if I was physically there, doing the work,
but not really seen or acknowledged. After COVID, when I returned to China, I noticed a
similar feeling among many young people around me. Even those with strong education
backgrounds were taking on jobs as delivery workers or influencers.
What really caught my attention was how these two roles began to form a strange loop.
Most men became delivery drivers and most women became influencers. After work, the
drivers would spend time watching livestreams. When the influencers finished streaming,
they would order food, often delivered by people just like those watching them. They’re
feeding into each other’s lives, yet both remain invisible in different ways.
Delivery workers are invisible in real life; people rarely remember their faces or names,
even though they show up at our doors every day. We rely on them constantly, yet treat
them like background figures. Influencers, while highly visible online, are often hiding
their true selves behind a screen. Through this project, I want to explore this dual
invisibility, both physical and emotional, and reflect how many young people today are
constantly present, but still not truly seen.