Home

©Xinyuan(Caesar) Li



Summer ‘夏’
2024

Multi-channel moving image, rice paper
Dimensions Variable
2 minutes

Sound Edit: Benjamin Woods

Summer ‘夏’ is an immersive projection installation that explores the synergy between Chinese and English typography. It presents a unique visual narrative that transcends traditional bilingual typography.

Memories of bamboo forests and fishponds from childhood intertwine with bilingual typography, serving as a canvas for my cultural reflections. The character ‘竹’ (‘zhu’, meaning bamboo) is deconstructed with branches and bamboo leaves, and the letterforms ‘b’, ‘a’, ‘m’, ‘o’, ‘o’ represent bamboo joints. The concept of a swimming fish is portrayed in ‘hieroglyphical Latin’ by creating a pictograph using the letters ‘f’, ‘i’, ‘s’, ‘h’ to form the shape of a fish.











  



Wind ‘风’
2024

Single-channel moving image
1920 * 1080 pixels
3 minutes

Chinese characters, an integral part of Chinese culture, carry rich symbolic meanings. In the 1950s, the pictorial functionality of Traditional Chinese characters was reduced as they evolved into Simplified Chinese characters. The question raised is whether these characters can reclaim their pictographic essence through modern technology.

Wind is depicted by the swaying of trees, represented by the Chinese character ‘木’ (‘Mu’, meaning tree) and the English word ‘TREE.’  This implicit expression seeks to unlock the character’s pictorial potential and explore new narrative possibilities for bilingual typography in modern Chinese and English through the use of motion design.












  



Rain ‘雨’
2024

Single-channel moving image
1920 * 1080 pixels
3 minutes

Rain(黛) is a projection installation that explores the synergy between Chinese and English typography. It presents a unique visual narrative that transcends traditional bilingual typography.

Chinese characters, as a significant aspect of Chinese culture, carry rich symbolic meanings and cultural connotations. In the 1950s, traditional Chinese characters gradually evolved into simplified forms, which caused the pictorial function of many characters to diminish. Could the application of motion technologies allow characters to regain their ‘pictographic’ function?

This artwork reinterprets Chinese characters by blending them with Latin alphabets to reconnect with their pictorial roots, while reflecting on personal experience, identity, and transcultural relationships. The character ‘雨’ (Yu, meaning rain) is deconstructed, its outlines resembling a window, with the four raindrops replaced by the English letters ‘r’, ‘a’, ‘i’, and ‘n’.





















Clock ‘表’
2024

HD video
01:00 mins; 02:00 mins; 24 hours

In this artwork, I have deconstructed and reinterpreted the Chinese characters '表' (Biao, meaning clock) . The character '表' is interpreted with its strokes representing the hands of a clock.