Browsing by Author "Li, Ying"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    An Exhibition of Multi-Media Photocollage Tapestries representing the Architecture and Artistic Culture of Central and Eastern European Cities
    (2019) Siegel, Isabella; Li, Ying
    I base my work on an idea of organized chaos. I make collages that are not meant to be a portrait of each city (as that would imply my power to give cities totalizing definitions), but rather, of my experience of examining the streets and buildings of each city. I make these collages by combining printed photographs I took during my time abroad, drawings on sheets of clear acetate, jewel-like embellishments, embroidery, and fabric scraps on textile backgrounds. I focus on both historical architectural patterns and everyday urbanism. My work explores the patterns that emerge from the unique, built environment of each city, shaped by complex histories and altered each day by the gestures, actions, and footsteps of that city’s people. I spent the 2018 spring semester at Corvinus University in Budapest. I traveled to Hungary so I could explore the cities and cultural identities of Central and Eastern Europe. My father’s roots lay in Belarus and Lithuania, and my mother’s parents immigrated as refugees from Romania. Between the decades spent behind the Iron Curtain and the relative lack of communication with the Americas, most people around the world have little more than a murky idea of these nations’ shadowy past. Many people view Eastern Europe as a place that offers little to the modern world. While tourism has exploded in Prague and steadily rises in Budapest, cities like Sofia, Bulgaria, and Ljubljana, Slovenia, remain unknown. During my time abroad, I went to some better-known cities (such as Berlin and Prague), but I also travelled to Pécs, Hungary; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Zagreb, Croatia; Mohács, Hungary; Cluj-Napoca, Romania; and Sofia, Bulgaria. While at my home base in Budapest, I wandered every neighborhood of the expansive city and learned about the city’s war-torn and controversial past. With each new city I went to, I spent hours wandering the streets and photographing architectural details unique to that place. I photographed thousands of of details that caught my eye, from cathedrals to graffiti, lampposts to coffee cups. My attention always shifted to something new, whether it was a public art performance or a leafy vine wrapped around a slightly bent piece of wrought iron. I then “organized” the details of these cities—not to simplify their identities and stories, but to draw attention to the elements that exemplify their organic architectures and the history that has shaped each of them. As someone with Eastern European heritage, I wanted to learn more about these places and their vibrant cultures, which diverge from those in Western Europe. While these countries have endured decades under various oppressive regimes, bloody wars, and continued corruption by the ruling parties, they have continued traditions of innovative and distinct artistic and architectural styles. Through exploring ornament, architecture, and craft, these tapestries begin to peel back the veil that shrouds the beauty of these cities.
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    Exhibition of "In Appearance"
    (2023) Rasmussen, Danika; Li, Ying
    This thesis explores how self-portraiture is used to embody gender identity and self-expression over time. Particularly focusing on my experience as a femme-presenting and cis-passing non-binary individual, these works seek to explore how I have existed and currently exist in a gender-non-conforming body, and how viewers respond to genderqueer presentation.
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    Exhibition of Dissonance and Daybreak
    (2021) Bruton, Ainsley; Li, Ying
    In my thesis body of work I attempt to visualize gender as a source of trauma within the body. The painting Dissonance and Daybreak seeks to represent that impact upon the body and the disidentified self created by a dysphoric relationship to embodiment.
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    Kerry FitzPatrick Fine Arts Senior Thesis Project
    (2013) FitzPatrick, Kerry; Li, Ying
    Using a language that has been heavily conditioned by the overwhelming visual stimuli characteristic of modern technology, I attempt to reinterpret iconography and mythology that has become somewhat trite and perhaps even irrelevant. These images have been appropriated to the point where they are readily recognizable yet banal enough to be easily overlooked in passing. In these paintings the symbols I re-imagine are distorted so that they lose some of this familiarity, but still may convey a sense of the uncanny—of something simultaneously comforting yet alienating. Where the different symbolic worlds overlap is where this uncertainty can be uncovered. The entanglement of these different images seems natural and harmless yet upon further reflection can become sinister and mysterious. It is my hope that the seemingly impenetrable meaninglessness of cliché can in this work be reevaluated to reveal something of the mysterious origins that gave rise to it in the first place.
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    Rhianna Shaheen Fine Arts Senior Thesis Project
    (2014) Shaheen, Rhianna; Li, Ying
    Visual storytelling composes stories through the sequencing of images. Motion pictures do this especially well. In the storyboarding process, movies are first conceived as several juxtaposed hand-drawn images. Although the end result is seemingly a reality flickering before our eyes, film is really just a series of still images. Yet, these images have the power to leave a lasting impression on us as viewers. From childhood to adulthood our relationship to the movies is one of constant influence in which each story has the power to shape our perception of the world. Images of women have left the greatest impact on me. Dorothy Gale, Matilda Wormwood, and Clarice Starling were among my favorite heroines. They were accessible characters who had their own adventures and embodied the hero I wanted to be. At a young age, their representation instilled within me a sense of possibility and identity. Storytelling holds great potential for envisioning these new narratives and empowering women. Images have the power to inspire and to reshape ideological frameworks. I use the vocabulary of visual storytelling to such ends in my own body of work as I explore the hero’s journey of a young runaway girl in the rural Midwest. Canvas and prints of various sizes serve as my storyboard to explore the pattern of the hero’s journey with a character and story of my own creation. Each painting acts as a snapshot of a moment in her journey. Placed in sequential order, they have a call and response interaction. Although titles are important to its meaning, my work does not collectively rely on text for its power and effect. I channel many of my dreams, fears, and longings into these images. It is a means for me to share and process many of my own youthful experiences, which I hope will resonate with others and create a self-reflective space. I want my work to provide viewers with a lens through which to understand, relate, engage and see.
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    Sanctuaries in Paint
    (2023) Malatesta, Sophia; Li, Ying
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    What Do You Think About When I Ask You About the Future?
    (2013) Schwartz, Shayna; Li, Ying
    What do you think about when asked about your future? What worries you most about the future? What gives you hope about the future? Is there a part of your past that influences your future? Was there a particular moment in your life where you were very concerned about the future? Is there a moment you can recall in which you were very certain about what you would do? Three women from different backgrounds and ages are the subjects of What are you thinking, when I ask you about the future? Each woman was interviewed using the above questions as springboards for a larger discussion, and her answers were recorded. The resulting audio is distilled into a short video segment that combines portions of the interview with animation. What are you thinking, when I ask you about the future? prompts thought about what it means to consider the abstract concept of the future. When you watch this piece, reflect upon your own answers to these questions and how they relate to the answers depicted. I am inspired by the animated biography genre, including works such as A Room Nearby by Paul and Sandra Fierlinger (a twenty-seven minute film showing five people’s stories about loneliness, based on a series of interviews), and the project Animated Minds (a series of animations using interviews with patients suffering from mental health problems to depict their experiences) directed by Andy Glynne. Hand-drawn animation is a very powerful medium in depicting intangible ideas in biographical stories. Each frame is drawn by hand, giving the piece the individualistic mark of the artist that matches the individualistic nature of the stories. The piece is labor-intensive; one second of video is twelve frames or images (12fps). It explains emotion and thought through visual metaphor. My piece draws from and includes itself in the animated biography genre. Through the medium of animation, What are you thinking, when I ask you about the future? strives to illustrate the individual perspectives about a topic that concerns us.