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In my recent series of paintings and digital animations, I explore the themes of identity and femininity. In my painting process, I create brushstrokes that mimic threads, I use weaving as a metaphor for feminine labor weaving together abstract elements. By interlacing body forms and brushwork, I build intricate, layered compositions that delve into women's physical and psychological experiences. The threads in my work introduce a sense of tension and disorientation, evoking the labor-intensive act of weaving—historically associated with women's work—and its meticulous process of interlacing to form patterns. This mirrors the layers of experience, resilience, and creativity present in feminine labor.
The digital animations draw inspiration from my paintings, where I experiment with modern technology to breathe movement into still images. By presenting these works side by side, I aim to bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary mediums, creating a cohesive body of work that invites the viewer to experience the themes from multiple perspectives.
In my works, the interwoven lines and textures reflect the complex psychological space of women, with vivid colors and intricate structures adding emotional depth. The abstract body forms represent how a woman experiences herself, often appearing constrained or entangled, symbolizing the psychological and societal pressures tied to femininity and the body. The recurring theme of tension between constraint and freedom suggests the burden of societal expectations.
Through my energetic brushwork and complex compositions, I reflect on the emotional and psychological aspects of femininity, as well as the weight of representation placed on women's bodies in contemporary society.
Documentation by Danny Luong
Wei Li’s paintings' squelchy and undulating forms compel me to draw my hands up to my soft stomach, gripping the fabric of my clothes. It feels familiar– I’ve been here before, in my body and wandering mind late at night.
While embroidering seed beads, the thread wraps around itself, curling and waving as the tension of pulling the needle through the hide strengthens a growing knot that I don’t notice until it halts all movement. I’ve faced many knots in my beading practice, and I have learned to meticulously pick at them until they come undone. The back of beadwork tells a story of its creation, the mark of the artist is in every stitch and knot woven behind the surface. It reminds me of the knots, configurations and weavings in Wei Li’s paintings. Blood and flesh rolling around in a fantastically surreal fashion, my head is dizzy searching for a soft place to land.
The act of sewing beads requires a lot of patience, which I do not always have. Just as I don’t always have the patience to disentangle identity politics and social responsibilities in the intersections of my lived experience. Sometimes I have to walk away, exasperated and frustrated. I put my half-beaded strawberry shaped earring into a time-out, I can come back to it later.
I recently married my husband last fall, entangling myself in the new identity of wife. Husband and wife make me shudder inside, a feeling of betrayal radiates outwards from my chest and spine to my fingertips. Continuing to bead, I stitch a pink bead to the strawberry earrings I am making. The little girl in me internalized the girl power anthems of the 90s, my mind echoes Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill, Wannabe by the Spice Girls and You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette. Am I betraying my values? That thought mulled over in my head and heart regularly leading up to the wedding and returned after the honeymoon vacation ended. Green beads spill out of a container, time to embroider the strawberry leaves. In my heart I yearn to be subversive and rebellious, diverging from the norm, but I have The Ring, I am the first of my siblings and friends to get married. My married experience is knotted, tangled and woven together with love, stability and insecurity, judgement and gender baggage. I gaze at the ripe berries, ready to be cut out and finished. The performance of femininity by women is strongly tied to social value, and I am uncomfortable with my femininity being validated by a marriage that I only want to be about loving. I want to pinch and pick out the entanglements I find myself in, instinctively I search for order in chaos. It’s worth interrogating this feeling and lingering in the uncomfortability of all the ties I have gathered for myself.
I’ve had a lot of time to spend with Li’s paintings, back and forth from watching the animations, unpacking the paintings and preparing the gallery for the exhibition installation. Luxuriating in the woven textures, and contorted body parts, speaking with my friends and family about the work and writing this exhibition text. Soft Body offers material form to consider abstractions of a tangled mass, weavings capable of resisting cracks and interrogation. As much discomfort as there is in negotiating our heavy entanglements on social, political, and relational levels, there are also points of connection and hands reaching out for support, denying the constraints imposed on itself. Now I allow myself to sit back, admire the red strawberry earrings and gaze at the ripened flesh of the paintings and lively animations.
Wei Li is a Calgary-based artist working in painting and digital media, exploring identity and experience through the lens of her Chinese-Canadian heritage as a female artist. Li completed her BFA (with Distinction) at the University of Alberta in 2017 and has since participated in shows/residencies across Canada and the United States. Li was a finalist in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition, and her work was shown at the National Gallery of Canada. Since the pandemic, she has ventured into the digital realm. Her debut digital series, Vessels, received widespread recognition, and she was awarded the Emerging Digital Artist Award in 2021.
在我最近的一系列绘画和数字动画中,我围绕着自己的身份和当代女性特质的主题进行了探索。在我的绘画过程中,我通过笔触模仿线条,用“编织”作为女性劳动的隐喻,将抽象元素交织在一起。我通过交错的身体形态与笔触,构建复杂且层次丰富的构图,深入探讨女性的身体和心理体验。作品中的线条引入了一种紧张感和迷失感,并且唤起了与编织这一劳动密集型工作的联想,编织在历史上与女性劳动联系在一起,以及编织过程中通过精心交错形成图案的细致过程。这反 映了女性劳动中蕴含的经验、韧性和创造力层次,与我在绘画中的表达相互呼应。我的数字动画从绘画中汲取灵感,我通过现代技术为静态图像注入动态感。将这些作品并列展示,我旨在弥合传统与当代媒介之间的鸿沟,创造一个连贯的作品集,邀请观众从多重视角体验这些主题。在我的作品中,交织的线条与纹理反映了女性复杂的心理空间,鲜艳的色彩与复杂的结构为作品增添了情感深度。抽象的身体形态表现了女性如何感知自己,往往看起来受到限制或纠缠,象征着与女性特质和身体相关的心理和社会压力。作品中反复出现的紧张感,象征了在束缚与自由之间的冲突,暗示着社会期望所带来的沉重负担。通过充满活力的笔触和复杂的构图,我反思了女性特质的情感和心理层面,以及当代社会对女性身体的表现所施加的压力。
李维是一位居住在卡尔加里的艺术家,主要从事绘画和数字媒体创作。她创作的主题围绕着其作为一位华裔加拿大女性移民,对自己的移民身份和女性经验的探索。李维于2017年在阿尔伯塔大学获得美术学士学位(BFA),此后参与了在加拿大和美国的多个展览和艺术驻留项目。她曾入围RBC加拿大绘画大赛决赛,其作品曾在加拿大国家美术馆展出。自疫情以来,她开始涉足数字领域。她的首个数字系列作品《Vessels》获得了广泛认可,并于2021年荣获新兴数字艺术家奖。
“我们常常在回顾事件时发现某种模式,这种模式让我们直觉上感受到有一种看不见的灵魂在引导和指引我们的道路。” ——贝尔·胡克斯,《爱的全部》李维的绘画中,那些湿滑、波动的形态让我不由得将双手放在柔软的腹部,紧抓着衣服的布料。这种感觉很熟悉——我曾在自己的身体和深夜的游离思绪中感受到过。在绣珠时,线缠绕着自己,弯曲起伏,随着拉针穿过皮革,张力加大,一个越来越紧的结悄然形成,直到它阻止了所有动作。我在串珠创作中遇到过很多结,学会了仔细地挑开它们,直到它们解开。珠饰背面讲述了它的创作过程,艺术家的印记存在于每一针每一线之中。这让我想起李维画作中的那些结、构造和编织。画中的血肉以一种奇妙的超现实方式翻滚,我的头昏沉,急切地寻找一个柔软的地方落脚。缝制珠子的过程需要极大的耐心,而我并不总是有这种耐心。就像我并不总是有耐心去理清交织在我生活经历中的身份政治和社会责任。有时候,我不得不走开,带着疲惫和挫败感。我把半完成的草莓形状的耳环放进“暂停区”,以后再回来处理。去年秋天,我刚和我的丈夫结婚,自己也融入了“妻子”这一新的身份。“丈夫”和“妻子”的新身份让我内心颤栗,一种对过去的自我的背叛感从胸口和脊柱扩散到指尖。我继续串珠,为正在制作的草莓耳环缝上一颗粉色珠子。小时候,我吸收了90年代的女权主义之声,我的脑海里回响着BikiniKill的《Rebel Girl》、辣妹组合的《Wannabe》以及Alanis Morissette的《You Oughta Know》。我是否背叛了自己的价值观?这种想法在婚礼前和蜜月结束后经常在我的脑海和心中徘徊。绿色的珠子从容器中洒出,是时候绣上草莓叶子了。我的内心渴望反叛、颠覆、与常规背道而驰,但我有戒指,我是兄弟姐妹和朋友中第一个结婚的人。我的婚姻经历交织着爱、稳定与不安、审判和性别包袱。我凝视着成熟的草莓,准备将它们剪下并完成。女性的女性化表现与社会价值密切相关,而我
对我的女性气质因婚姻而获得的认可感到不安——我只想让婚姻与爱情有关。我想揪出并解开我所置身的纠缠,本能地在混乱中寻找秩序。值得探讨这种感觉,并在我为自己积累的所有牵绊中停留在不安之中。我花了很多时间和李的画作相处,在观赏动画、拆开画作、准备展览安装之间来回穿梭。沉浸于这些编织的纹理、抽象的身体部位,和我的朋友家人讨论作品,撰写这篇展览文本。《柔软的身体》赋予了这片混乱中的抽象以物质形态,编织物能够抵御裂缝和质疑。尽管在社会、政治和关系层面上谈判这些沉重纠缠带来了诸多不适,但也有连接的点,有伸出援手的时刻,拒绝让自己被施加的束缚所限制。现在,我允许自己靠在椅背上,欣赏红色的草莓耳环,凝视那些成熟的血肉般的画作和活泼的动画作品。”
The digital animations draw inspiration from my paintings, where I experiment with modern technology to breathe movement into still images. By presenting these works side by side, I aim to bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary mediums, creating a cohesive body of work that invites the viewer to experience the themes from multiple perspectives.
In my works, the interwoven lines and textures reflect the complex psychological space of women, with vivid colors and intricate structures adding emotional depth. The abstract body forms represent how a woman experiences herself, often appearing constrained or entangled, symbolizing the psychological and societal pressures tied to femininity and the body. The recurring theme of tension between constraint and freedom suggests the burden of societal expectations.
Through my energetic brushwork and complex compositions, I reflect on the emotional and psychological aspects of femininity, as well as the weight of representation placed on women's bodies in contemporary society.
Documentation by Danny Luong
Malleable Soul
Essay by Jasmine Piper“Often we look at events retrospectively and can trace a pattern, one that allows us to intuitively recognize the presence of an unseen spirit guiding and directing our path.”
- bell hooks, all about love
- bell hooks, all about love
Wei Li’s paintings' squelchy and undulating forms compel me to draw my hands up to my soft stomach, gripping the fabric of my clothes. It feels familiar– I’ve been here before, in my body and wandering mind late at night.
While embroidering seed beads, the thread wraps around itself, curling and waving as the tension of pulling the needle through the hide strengthens a growing knot that I don’t notice until it halts all movement. I’ve faced many knots in my beading practice, and I have learned to meticulously pick at them until they come undone. The back of beadwork tells a story of its creation, the mark of the artist is in every stitch and knot woven behind the surface. It reminds me of the knots, configurations and weavings in Wei Li’s paintings. Blood and flesh rolling around in a fantastically surreal fashion, my head is dizzy searching for a soft place to land.
The act of sewing beads requires a lot of patience, which I do not always have. Just as I don’t always have the patience to disentangle identity politics and social responsibilities in the intersections of my lived experience. Sometimes I have to walk away, exasperated and frustrated. I put my half-beaded strawberry shaped earring into a time-out, I can come back to it later.
I recently married my husband last fall, entangling myself in the new identity of wife. Husband and wife make me shudder inside, a feeling of betrayal radiates outwards from my chest and spine to my fingertips. Continuing to bead, I stitch a pink bead to the strawberry earrings I am making. The little girl in me internalized the girl power anthems of the 90s, my mind echoes Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill, Wannabe by the Spice Girls and You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette. Am I betraying my values? That thought mulled over in my head and heart regularly leading up to the wedding and returned after the honeymoon vacation ended. Green beads spill out of a container, time to embroider the strawberry leaves. In my heart I yearn to be subversive and rebellious, diverging from the norm, but I have The Ring, I am the first of my siblings and friends to get married. My married experience is knotted, tangled and woven together with love, stability and insecurity, judgement and gender baggage. I gaze at the ripe berries, ready to be cut out and finished. The performance of femininity by women is strongly tied to social value, and I am uncomfortable with my femininity being validated by a marriage that I only want to be about loving. I want to pinch and pick out the entanglements I find myself in, instinctively I search for order in chaos. It’s worth interrogating this feeling and lingering in the uncomfortability of all the ties I have gathered for myself.
I’ve had a lot of time to spend with Li’s paintings, back and forth from watching the animations, unpacking the paintings and preparing the gallery for the exhibition installation. Luxuriating in the woven textures, and contorted body parts, speaking with my friends and family about the work and writing this exhibition text. Soft Body offers material form to consider abstractions of a tangled mass, weavings capable of resisting cracks and interrogation. As much discomfort as there is in negotiating our heavy entanglements on social, political, and relational levels, there are also points of connection and hands reaching out for support, denying the constraints imposed on itself. Now I allow myself to sit back, admire the red strawberry earrings and gaze at the ripened flesh of the paintings and lively animations.
Wei Li is a Calgary-based artist working in painting and digital media, exploring identity and experience through the lens of her Chinese-Canadian heritage as a female artist. Li completed her BFA (with Distinction) at the University of Alberta in 2017 and has since participated in shows/residencies across Canada and the United States. Li was a finalist in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition, and her work was shown at the National Gallery of Canada. Since the pandemic, she has ventured into the digital realm. Her debut digital series, Vessels, received widespread recognition, and she was awarded the Emerging Digital Artist Award in 2021.
在我最近的一系列绘画和数字动画中,我围绕着自己的身份和当代女性特质的主题进行了探索。在我的绘画过程中,我通过笔触模仿线条,用“编织”作为女性劳动的隐喻,将抽象元素交织在一起。我通过交错的身体形态与笔触,构建复杂且层次丰富的构图,深入探讨女性的身体和心理体验。作品中的线条引入了一种紧张感和迷失感,并且唤起了与编织这一劳动密集型工作的联想,编织在历史上与女性劳动联系在一起,以及编织过程中通过精心交错形成图案的细致过程。这反 映了女性劳动中蕴含的经验、韧性和创造力层次,与我在绘画中的表达相互呼应。我的数字动画从绘画中汲取灵感,我通过现代技术为静态图像注入动态感。将这些作品并列展示,我旨在弥合传统与当代媒介之间的鸿沟,创造一个连贯的作品集,邀请观众从多重视角体验这些主题。在我的作品中,交织的线条与纹理反映了女性复杂的心理空间,鲜艳的色彩与复杂的结构为作品增添了情感深度。抽象的身体形态表现了女性如何感知自己,往往看起来受到限制或纠缠,象征着与女性特质和身体相关的心理和社会压力。作品中反复出现的紧张感,象征了在束缚与自由之间的冲突,暗示着社会期望所带来的沉重负担。通过充满活力的笔触和复杂的构图,我反思了女性特质的情感和心理层面,以及当代社会对女性身体的表现所施加的压力。
李维是一位居住在卡尔加里的艺术家,主要从事绘画和数字媒体创作。她创作的主题围绕着其作为一位华裔加拿大女性移民,对自己的移民身份和女性经验的探索。李维于2017年在阿尔伯塔大学获得美术学士学位(BFA),此后参与了在加拿大和美国的多个展览和艺术驻留项目。她曾入围RBC加拿大绘画大赛决赛,其作品曾在加拿大国家美术馆展出。自疫情以来,她开始涉足数字领域。她的首个数字系列作品《Vessels》获得了广泛认可,并于2021年荣获新兴数字艺术家奖。
“我们常常在回顾事件时发现某种模式,这种模式让我们直觉上感受到有一种看不见的灵魂在引导和指引我们的道路。” ——贝尔·胡克斯,《爱的全部》李维的绘画中,那些湿滑、波动的形态让我不由得将双手放在柔软的腹部,紧抓着衣服的布料。这种感觉很熟悉——我曾在自己的身体和深夜的游离思绪中感受到过。在绣珠时,线缠绕着自己,弯曲起伏,随着拉针穿过皮革,张力加大,一个越来越紧的结悄然形成,直到它阻止了所有动作。我在串珠创作中遇到过很多结,学会了仔细地挑开它们,直到它们解开。珠饰背面讲述了它的创作过程,艺术家的印记存在于每一针每一线之中。这让我想起李维画作中的那些结、构造和编织。画中的血肉以一种奇妙的超现实方式翻滚,我的头昏沉,急切地寻找一个柔软的地方落脚。缝制珠子的过程需要极大的耐心,而我并不总是有这种耐心。就像我并不总是有耐心去理清交织在我生活经历中的身份政治和社会责任。有时候,我不得不走开,带着疲惫和挫败感。我把半完成的草莓形状的耳环放进“暂停区”,以后再回来处理。去年秋天,我刚和我的丈夫结婚,自己也融入了“妻子”这一新的身份。“丈夫”和“妻子”的新身份让我内心颤栗,一种对过去的自我的背叛感从胸口和脊柱扩散到指尖。我继续串珠,为正在制作的草莓耳环缝上一颗粉色珠子。小时候,我吸收了90年代的女权主义之声,我的脑海里回响着BikiniKill的《Rebel Girl》、辣妹组合的《Wannabe》以及Alanis Morissette的《You Oughta Know》。我是否背叛了自己的价值观?这种想法在婚礼前和蜜月结束后经常在我的脑海和心中徘徊。绿色的珠子从容器中洒出,是时候绣上草莓叶子了。我的内心渴望反叛、颠覆、与常规背道而驰,但我有戒指,我是兄弟姐妹和朋友中第一个结婚的人。我的婚姻经历交织着爱、稳定与不安、审判和性别包袱。我凝视着成熟的草莓,准备将它们剪下并完成。女性的女性化表现与社会价值密切相关,而我
对我的女性气质因婚姻而获得的认可感到不安——我只想让婚姻与爱情有关。我想揪出并解开我所置身的纠缠,本能地在混乱中寻找秩序。值得探讨这种感觉,并在我为自己积累的所有牵绊中停留在不安之中。我花了很多时间和李的画作相处,在观赏动画、拆开画作、准备展览安装之间来回穿梭。沉浸于这些编织的纹理、抽象的身体部位,和我的朋友家人讨论作品,撰写这篇展览文本。《柔软的身体》赋予了这片混乱中的抽象以物质形态,编织物能够抵御裂缝和质疑。尽管在社会、政治和关系层面上谈判这些沉重纠缠带来了诸多不适,但也有连接的点,有伸出援手的时刻,拒绝让自己被施加的束缚所限制。现在,我允许自己靠在椅背上,欣赏红色的草莓耳环,凝视那些成熟的血肉般的画作和活泼的动画作品。”