before the hand was put to work there was the tail.

a body once spoke without permission.

the hand began to hold, to build, to measure, to produce.

the tail did not.

it moved before movement required a reason. it confessed before language arrived.

the hand learned discipline.

it signs contracts, builds walls, counts hours, points toward tomorrow.

the tail answers no question.

it knows only how fear bends, how longing sways, how exhaustion hangs closer to the ground.

we call this evolution.

perhaps it was only another order.

the hand entered it.

the tail remained outside it.

yet every gesture that exceeds its function,

every touch that asks for nothing,

every act of care left unaccounted for,

every affection that refuses to become value,

the tail remembers.

Huidi Xiang (b. 1995, Chengdu, China) is a sculptor based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Hill Art Foundation (New York, NY), Mattatuck Museum (Waterbury, CT), Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art (Buffalo, NY), Bronx Museum of the Arts (Bronx, NY), YveYANG Gallery (New York, NY), KAJE (Brooklyn, NY), and Contemporary Calgary (Calgary, Canada). She has presented commissioned works at the Jing’an International Sculpture Project (Shanghai, China, 2024), X Museum Triennial (Beijing, China, 2023), and OCAT Biennale (Shenzhen, China, 2021).

Huidi has participated in artist residency programs including the Bronx Museum AIM Fellowship, Lighthouse Works Fellowship, NARS Foundation International Residency Program, and Millay Arts Residency Program. She holds an MFA in Art from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in Architecture from Rice University.