Experimental Fields:
Xi Li

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photo access Gallery, Manuka Arts Centre

Xi Li, Prosperity or Emptiness 3 (video still), 2022

Exhibition Overview

Experimental Fields reveals how digital technology and the spiritual world intertwine to create a complex network of existence, examining the intersections of urban, fantasy, and cyber spaces with the self. These works are presented through 3D visual animation, and they craft fantastical fields that symbolise the coexistence of the virtual and real. This aesthetic blend is a metaphor, prompting reflections on the links between identity, body, technology, and contemporary civilisation and provoking critical dialogue that transcends the physical into the fields of thought.

View the Exhibition Catalogue Here View Exhibition Opening Recording Here

Exhibition artist

Xi Li

Xi Li 李曦 is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher. Born in Harbin, China, and based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa, she earned a Master of Fine Arts (with first-class honours) from Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland in 2021. Her practice spans digital film, moving images, animation, 3D-printed sculptures, performance, spatial installations, virtual reality, games, and diagrams. Her work explores the interaction between physical experiences and the digital realm through grand narratives and extensive projects.

She integrates frameworks like psychoanalysis, postmodernity, semiotics, and phenomenology to create self-mythologies and critical dialogues. Her interests include the complexity of subjective and collective experiences, focusing on the construction and transformation of consciousness and subjectivity in digital technology, capitalism, cyberspace, and popular cultures.

Her cross-cultural background sparks interest in global diaspora, identity, gender and racial belonging, marginalisation, colonisation, geopolitical dynamics, and hyper-cultural landscapes. Xi Li is dedicated to merging theoretical research with artistic practice, creating expressions that link both realms.

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