xinyu li

My artwork expresses emotions through videos, animations, and drawings. Sigmund Freud’s dream theory inspires me; he believed dreams represent a disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish. As an artist, I record my dreams and explore emotions from dreams. Drawing is my main language, I start with brainstorming and refresh my ideas with sketches about my dreams.
I admire artists like Jan Svankmajer, Brothers Quay, and Ladislas Starevich; their works always resonate with me. Their art worlds are dark and a little scary, but they contain many thoughts and exploration of their life and humanity. The works of these artists can make audiences think, they are like mirrors reflecting the external world. Thus, I think a good design should not only contain attractive visual effects but also needs to convey meaningful content. This is my artistic goal.
I like to try different visual effects in a single software. I also like to use a combination of different software to create one piece of art. Trying software and effects that I am not familiar with and combining different media helps to push me out of my comfort zone. Trying new media is challenging, but more importantly, it is a good way for self-learning during the production processes. This is a process of continuous innovation and self-improvement.
I plan to keep practicing with different media so that I can expand my design topics from dreams to the natural world and entomology. Humans and insects are parts of the natural world; insects are also an important source of human genes, information, and biological materials. Nature is a medium with unlimited artistic exploration. So I can use nature as the base, insects as a reflection of human beings, and combine them with my designs. My aim is to make my works present ideas about some parts of humanity, such as fear and death, making audiences think about how these elements reflect on their real life.