Listen

Wei Li is an emerging artist whose experience of being an immigrant to Canada provides her with crucial inspiration in her practice. Having grown up in China and trained as a contemporary artist in the West, her dual cultural background challenges her to integrate different cultural perspectives and creates tensions through the contradictions inherent in forming a new hybrid identity.

Li completed her BFA (with Distinction) from the University of Alberta in 2017 and since has participated in shows/residency across Canada and the US. She had solo shows at the Art Gallery of St Albert and Harcourt House Artist Run Centre. In 2017, Li was a finalist in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition, and her work was shown at the National Gallery of Canada. Li will attend the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation Residency in New York this year. She recently starts a new series to utilize modern technology to render digital surrealistic objects and creates a new vision of hybridity.

Steven Harris recently retired from teaching at the University of Alberta, after twenty years of working there. He published his book Surrealist Art and Thought in the 1930s: Art, Politics, and the Psyche with Cambridge University Press in 2004; co-edited a special issue of Art History with Natalie Adamson in 2016; and is one of five editors of the International Encyclopedia of Surrealism, which was published in three volumes from Bloomsbury in 2019. He also published a study of the 1959 International Exhibition of Surrealism in Art History in 2020, contributed an essay to the catalogue for the centennial exhibition of the Danish artist Asger Jorn for the Statens Museum for  Kunst in Copenhagen in 2014, and an essay to a special issue on Jorn for the journal October in 2012. He has written essays about  Sherri Chaba, Lyndal Osborne, and Lisa Turner for exhibitions in the  Edmonton area, and is currently working on another one about local artist Richard Boulet. His major work in progress concerns a singular group of artists, poets, dancers, and musicians who collaborated in Alabama from the 1970s to the 1990s, provisionally entitled Pataphysics and Surrealism in Alabama.

Hannah Quimper-Swiderski (she/they) is a visual artist, curator, and Digital Program Manager at Latitude 53. They currently live and work in Edmonton-Amiswaciwâskahikan.

Transcript

Hannah: I’ll just… oh, scary! 

So, we’re starting the recording. So yes, once again, my name’s Hannah, I’m the Digital Programming Coordinator at Latitude. I'll just tell you a little bit about the Art From Here project before we get started. 

So, Art From Here is a project that Latitude started in partnership with the Mitchell Art Gallery, Ociciwan, and SNAP, kind of around the beginning of the pandemic in spring of 2020. We feature an artist bi-monthly and we have them bring along a co-host to write about their work, and then we do a little studio visit like we’re going to do tonight! 

Just because there’s - I’m sure there’s going to be a bunch of us in here - just be sure to have your microphone muted when you’re not speaking, just to keep the background noise down. Like I mentioned before I started the recording, this is recorded. So if you miss part of it, you can always watch it later, it’ll go up on Art From Here, usually the next day after the talk. And yes, we’re going to do- We’re going to have a little discussion, and then there’ll be a question period kind of at the end. But if you think of any questions, feel free to pop them in the chat and I’ll keep an eye on that for later. This meeting is also going to- We’re transcribing it, so there will be closed captions, and there will also be a transcription of it available after as well. That’s pretty cool! I hope it works; this is my first time using it, so we’ll see what happens. 

So now I will turn it over to our artist and our co-host. We have Wei Li and Steven Harris with us today. Yeah, so I’ll pass it along to them, we had kind of an- We were just chatting before this, we have kind of an idea of what we’re going to be doing to get started, so it’ll be really fun. So I’ll pass it over to you guys now. 

Steven: Alright. So shall I be the kind of host, in a way? I'm Stephen Harris. I’m recently retired from the University of Alberta, teaching Art History, and Wei was in one of my classes - more senior classes - a number of years ago. And I was very impressed with her, both her effort in the class and what she was able to accomplish in it. And we've kept in touch since. So Wei, very kindly, asked me to write something about her work that is up on the Latitude website, and that's why we're here co-hosting this event tonight.

So Wei was - and is - primarily a painter. So, the digital imagery is something that she's familiar with in terms of using the technology, but is something that is kind of… popped up again more recently, right? In her creative work. And right now, she's in a residency in New Berlin New York - which is upstate New York, kind of about halfway between Albany and Syracuse. And she's in the third week of a month-long residency there, where she's been returning to painting. And we thought, to start off this session, that Wei would take us on a kind of studio- Tour of her studio where she is right now and show us some of the work that she's been working on in this residency. And then, we will talk about some of the linkages between that and the digital imagery that she was working on before. So Wei, would you like to start us off on that tour?

Wei: Okay. Yeah, totally. Maybe I should say - Yeah, hello. Yeah, my name is Wei. I graduated from University of Alberta several years ago, and since then I have been working as an artist. So yeah, right now and doing the residency here at the Golden Foundation for the Arts. Maybe- I think we can start the tour right now, just to show like, what works I've been working on. So maybe… should I- I will switch my camera now, and yeah, we can just take a tour in the (audio cuts when camera switches).  

Yeah, I think… Here is my like, studio. There is all of the spaces I've been working on, and maybe we can start off- My materials, I’ve been getting from Golden, here. They are providing those, like, workshops almost… not every day, but there is like maybe two or three times per week for like, teaching us about all of the materials. And materials: So, they have like, all those colour charts in acrylics, and the [unintelligible] make those gel testing, where it has like… Trying every Golden colours, and they have their workshops on the ground and the paste, just everything they hope we can get. And I have some. So here, and even those watercolours, we have sessions even on their watercolour colours and like, oils. So we did like, learned a lot about their stuff. 

Here is my painting cave. I will say that's where I like working every day, it’s basically I'm making a cave. Yeah, I just block those windows because I don't want the sun just like, shining on my paintings. And yeah, because in this residency we can have all those materials available, we can just like working with every colours or every medium. Whatever we want, we can go grab it. That's very good. So, okay here, as you can see, the top are my own colour charts. I do make colour charts of every color that Golden has as a reference while I'm painting. And here, maybe we can start off with some works I’ve been working on. 

Maybe let’s start- To start off from this one, because this is the first painting I've done here. It’s basically just like, my residency paintings. I painted like, basically where I'm living right now. That's- You can see the buildings, that's where I live right now. We live on a farm. So you see a barn, that's the residency barn. So you can see the chairs that’s over my studios and all those plants, flowers. I do take photos, so you can see I have my reference. That's all the plants that’s outside in the field, just outside the building. So, this painting is kind of special, because it’s the first done, I have first finished here, and I try to like… Suggesting, find a place in between. So you can try to put like- collapse the interior and exterior moment together so, you know, one painting. You can see like, the piece of interior with the exterior, they can really happens at the same time in one place. I think that part speaks to my experience as an immigrant, because I'm always looking for spaces, I’m very sensitive to where I am live and all those situations. So that's why I think that also an act. Yeah, that speaks to my experience about this place next door, longing for home and looking for a place where I belongs to. I think that's the general I've years. I'm always constantly looking for a in-between place that's comfortable and also like, I'm comfortable at the same time. So that's very something to start off.

And I think this one is also kind finished. As you can see, I have those math symbols for windows, and the household plants, and they suggest like, interior. Like I said, I try to put… collapse the moment between exterior and interior, especially those interior moments. I think they kind suggesting my question- Like addressing my question is like, “Where is the home? And where the place I am belonging or living?” As you can see, those are those referenced photos. I've had just like the outsides of the residency when I go out for a walk. So I really have those like, moments in my painting - make them abstracts, those imagery - and put them into the work. 

And okay, yeah. This one's very like… starting point. So it's very like, in the beginning of the beginning stage of the work and- Now I'm talking too much. But you can see I started to bring those bodily elements into my work. You can see the palette, it's very different. Because I still- I think I'm very interested in those like, bodily elements, bringing those very visceral experiences into the work. So, I started to bring those like, elements to suggest the bodies, and… But still,  this painting is like, not finished. Just- actually just started, and starting to breaking out the spaces. 

And yeah, I have some… those are studies. So different, like testing plate, and you can see I’m  testing out the materials and the different surfaces. So it's very interesting to doing some testing. And also like my skeins and, just working a little bit here and there every day. And yeah, those are just small sketches from those photographs. I try to grab the elements from the real environment and abstract them in some way to make pattern out of it, and then transform-  transfer them to my work.

And yeah, so this is another one, but it's not like- it's kind of still working on that, it’s not finished. But as you can see here, you can see there is some like body parts that will seem like, hidden in those landscape, it’s my personal interest. I just want to bring out those like… parts, to suggest those visceral feelings. And you can see the drawings. That's a drawings for interior rooms, so there is like, windows and something very like… I will say surreal in the- just outside in the woods. So it's really about different moments happens in one world. But it's not finished yet. So I'm not going to talk too much about this one.

And there's like, two more. I think they're pretty much done, that's why I’m hanging them on the other side of the wall. I think for this one,  it's the same. I'm painting the fields where I am living now. You can see those photo transferred flowers and the acrylic stained clouds and… yeah. So it's really about disrupting a space, trying to like, collapsing different moment in one painting. I think, yeah. Like I said, that echoes my only experience as an immigrant, like looking for spaces and try to navigate myself into the daily life. That's how I will say those paintings are about, they’re about the spaces, my experience about those spaces I've been occupying, and the ideas about home, and looking for a place, and yeah. As you can see, those looks like a landscape in those dark bubbles. It's actually an interior vase with flowers. They are usually, you will find indoor in space. This kind, for me, is the suggestion for homes. Like for my space where my question is about, “Where's my space?” I'm thinking those two are more of finished. What I learned at Golden here, I just like, you can see the surface is very different. So I can really understand those materials now, to make the painting surface they can be like, very different. That's what I’ve never been like, experiment before. So the painting actually itself looks more vibrant. 

Yeah, I think this is the work I've been working on. Although those- This is a little experiment but I really loves it. So it's like, playing with those metallic acrylics here with the… they're called so flat matte acrylic. So it’s very like, new product. You don't like, even find in the market quite often, but it’s very fun to play with this new stuff, this new paint, and try to make works out of them. So the colour is very different and the surface is very interesting. 

So next those are my testing tables. I do lots of experiment here. I'm still working on those pourings. And those are my pouring plates. Because they are in the experimental stage, so I'm not going to talking maybe too much. And I don't think they're quite successful. And those are like, acrylic skins and I'm trying to mixing with- they're still drying. Usually you will put down those skins after they dry. You can lift them up and make some collages back to your work. It's just my experiments. So you can see those surface, they are very interesting. And you can see those iridescent colours shine through the surface. So it's very firm right here. [unintelligible], it's all about the materials. Yeah, here it's not pouring, I'm still waiting to dry. See the problem for acrylics is that you still need to wait, even though they are not drying as slow as oils. But they are, it still takes time for them to dry. And those are my colours. And I've been testing on, those are all the paints I've been mixing here. And yeah, just trying to paint and experiment, paint and experiment, switching my spaces in the studio here.

I think this, this is it. It's probably… yeah, that's about my studio tours and my works. Now I've been working and for most of time, I'm focusing on- (speech pauses while switching camera view) Yeah, most of the time I'm focusing on the material, and different… how to create different surfaces, and yeah, to make the work works. So this is probably what has been done in the past month.

Steven: That was very interesting. And it was great to see you working in painting again. So, I have two questions for you. One is the particular kind of mental process by which you place different motifs in your paintings together, and how that works. Is some of it based on the studies you're doing and then you kind of make a gradual kind of building up? Or how does one element in the painting relate to the others? Is it a part by part composition in that sense? Or do you have a sense of the whole image before you begin? 

Wei: (Hums in contemplation) No, I think my process is quite intuitive. I discover the images like… I will say in the process while I am making it. So it's very like, loose, but I do like doing those studies and sketches beforehand, so I will have some materials in mind. But it turns out, discover the paintings are usually like it happens in the process while I'm making it. So there is no like, saying I know what the painting will look like in the beginning of my process. I just might work on the work until I say, “Okay, I think this is done,” right? You know when a painting is done. So that's a moment. Yeah. 

Steven: And you also said - getting back to the digital imagery, which I think we can start talking about now - that those, too, were engaged with the immigrant process for you. So there's some way in which those digital images which look quite different from the paintings are related conceptually or thematically to each other. Could you say more about how that might be working in the digital imagery? 

Wei: I think… I think they do connect together, those digital images. I think they are all about myself, and they all about my own experience. 

But the interesting part I find, like, in… I feel like painting - maybe let’s speak painting first - I think painting allows some certain degrees of ambiguity in the work. So that- Usually, I think, painting is more like, emotional, and making painting for me is like writing a poem. So it's like, painting can be a very poetic art. 

For those digital images, I think they're very straightforward, and they’re like… they are more like a statement. So, they're speaking what I want to speak. So it's kind of like, yeah, you are writing in different style. Yeah. Painting definitely feels more emotional and poetic for me, and the digital image is very… is more maybe… Because the process while you are working is more magic, and the result is more like, straightforward. And the statement- So by a communication aspect, I think those digital images can be more, like, strong, more loud about my ideas. And compared to those paintings, it’s more subtle, and there is definitely certain ambiguities in the works that requires the viewer's different interpretations. 

But overall, I think they are just about- They’re writings about myself just in different styles. They’re still like- You can see there is something… connects together, like those bodies in the vast overall experience and… yeah. 

Steven: Yeah. So there's different means of communication. 

Wei: Yeah, that’s right. 

Steven: One is more direct with the digital imagery and one is more indirect with the painting, but they're both communicating in quite different ways. 

Wei: Yeah, yeah. 

Steven: Yeah. So can we get back, though, to the, the notion of immigrant experience in relation to the digital imagery, particularly? Because that's something I'd like to hear more about.  

Wei: Yeah.

For that group of work, I just like… I take those objects - like mundane objects from my daily life - and try to explore my own identities, because I think you do- You can find your own identities through all the objects around you, right? That's just basically my starting point that I… (hums in contemplation) yeah. So I think those objects are like, a representation about my own life, as a mother, as an immigrant, as like… I will say, yeah, if you remember those, like, cooking jars. That’s my daily objects. And I just find these very interesting to make them… Make the objects, make the subjects as objects. So you- I can really explore my own identities. And look, I think it's functioning as my own portraits in some ways. Yeah.

Steven: And you are also turning them into subjects, right? 

Wei: Yeah. 

Steven: Because you're giving them not a personality necessarily, because they might already have one because of what they are. But you're, you're giving them, you know, skin and hair and so on. So you are making them something different from what they are. So that is a curious process for me as well.

Wei: Yeah. 

Steven: Because they're… they're being transformed at the same time as they are everyday objects.

Wei: (affirmative hum) Yeah. 

That's why for that project, I think I spent- I actually spent lots of time thinking and picking the objects, instead of making paintings. For paintings, I can just like, jump into the pool and working and modifying. But for the digital objects, I'm planning a lot before I started. I just like… really spending time to picking up an object I think can speak to my own identity. So once I decide which object that I want to work on and how I am gonna work on, then I just started working. So the process is kind of… is very different. But I think those objects I pick from my life very, like, strongly representation of myself. So my work is all… is like…I will say they are all quite personal about myself. So yeah. 

Steven: And you were thinking before you went into the residency, of perhaps translating the digital imagery into paintings. But you have chosen to go another path while you're there. Which is partly, it seems to me, in response to the landscape of where you are, right?

Wei: Yeah. 

Steven: So you, you made it- You made a decision to take this path, which is closer to your previous painting practice, but it's in response to where you are now. And perhaps you could say a little bit more about the choices you made there.

Wei: I do- I talked to the staff here at the Golden Foundation about the digital project because I, I was planning to make them quite big. I want them like, stand out as a real human size. So that's part of the reason why I'm not working on that one here, right now, because it takes time, like, to really making something… large size indoor. But I do- like, I talked to the staff to figure out the process of how I am gonna transfer those, like, digital renderings into a large sized canvas, and… Yeah, we have those conversations and yeah. 

And the other reason is definitely- I am impressed by the environment here. So I do find my own enjoyment to live here, and they provide the freedom for artistic creation, right? That's why I use that as a starting point for me to carry out the investigations in the materials and my own ideas about the space. I think space is also like… important, it’s an important thing, questions for an immigrant, especially, like me. Because we're looking for spaces. We're looking for the question like, “Where is my home now?” “Where I belongs to?” Like even here, at Golden Foundation, I still… I just try to approach the notions like being a guest or something in my work.

So you can see there's always like, pieces of interior colours appears somewhere in my, in my work. I think they're just like- I'm trying to put my questions about like, yeah, “Where is my place?” or “Am I being a guest in land?”, something like that. So yeah, I think that echoes my own experience back to Canada right now. I'm still have those type of feelings like… yeah. Even though I think Canada is my home, but still you will feel, like, the notion of being a guest on the land. So, yeah. 

Steven: So, that was a very interesting answer. Now, does this mean that you will still work up those digital images or something like it? You still intend to do this in painting when you return?

Wei: Yeah. I do plan - like when I return, I want continue and carry out the digital project. I still want to make them in a large size. Because I think the size does matters, and they can speak very differently when you are looking at a larger size works. So yeah, I think I will- I will keep continuing explore those two directions. It’s just like taking a break from one and another, just jump between because they're quite different in the process. But I think they are still, like, conceptually related.  So, yeah. 

Steven: So, I have one final question before we turn it over to questions from others. The way of working to translate an image like that into a large image will be very different from the more improvisatory process that you usually work with when you're painting. So, that'll be a different kind of experience because you- It will be closer in some ways, I think, to the process of deciding on an image and then working it out, right? 

Wei: Yeah.

Steven: So that does happen in details in your current work. But this would be on a much bigger scale. And have you thought about the difference in the approaches you would be taking because you haven't- I haven't seen you work that way before in painting.

Wei: (hums in contemplation) I do have those illustration skills, so I'm thinking about… I can start maybe from black and white, so I can more focusing on those tonal variations, not worrying too much about colors. That's probably a safe space for me to jumping to this project in the future. But, I do think it's possible. Because from my previous experience of working for games and if I start from my basics, from black and white image, then I think I still, like- It’s different mindset, but I think it's workable for me.

Steven: Good. 

Wei:  Yeah. 

Steven: Perhaps we can open it up to other questions. I haven't looked at the chat myself, but there may be something there.

Hannah: I didn't see any questions in the chat, but we can open it up. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask them in the chat, or you can turn on your video, turn on your microphone and ask them out loud. Whatever you're more comfortable with. Yeah. 

I have a question to get us started. Wei, I'm, I'm really curious. I really loved how you specifically pointed out, like the interior spaces within the exterior spaces and kind of those like interior objects. Like, I kind of see that in the digital renderings just because they are that kind of like mundane object, but with the exterior of, like, a human kind of form. I'm curious if you would - If those objects could find a way into your paintings, or if you think that like if you see them as two separate pieces or… I'm curious if there could be more overlap?

Wei: I've think there is overlap because there is like… Like I said, there are some bodily elements in my work. Now I am trying to and I get pinned parts of bodies, incorporate them into the landscape. I consider these while the overlaps and the…Yeah. And I haven't really thinking about bringing those projects in my paintings, because I just don't know where they are gonna situate. But that might be an interesting, like, idea in that I can transfer them into the work, right? Yeah. 

Hannah: Thank you. 

Wei: Yeah.

Danielle: I have a question. 

Wei: Yeah. 

Danielle: Just about your interest in the vessels. I know it's the title, but it also- Like, the vessel form shows up in your painting and in this digital project obviously. So could you just elaborate a little bit more on your interest in vessels as an object and a theme, I guess?

Wei: (hums in contemplation) Yeah.

I think I'd pick the words vessels because I think those objects contains lot. They have like lots of things, lots of different layers of meanings in them. So they're kind of like vessels of some kind, that's like basically why I pick the words.

And also like, I think they're… they carry out, like I said, levels of meanings, and they just carry out my ideas, and I kind of see my… yeah. Even my exploration of my own identities, I just feel like there's- It's something that contains that much, and I have the words like vessels of some kind. So yeah, that's where it comes from. Yeah.

(pause)

Wei: Okay. I think we should be good?

Hannah: (laughs) If no one else has any questions, then I think that's it for tonight! Thank you so much to everybody who joined us, this was really nice. 

If anybody- If you haven't already checked out Wei’s work and Steven's writing, it's up on Art From Here. It'll be featured on the front page ‘til end of the month-ish, and then it'll be moved to the archive section. And this talk will also be uploaded to the website. So if you, if you- For those that came in a little bit late and missed the beginning, you can watch - or you can rewatch if you loved it that much! Yeah. 

Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you, Wei. And thank you, Steven, especially. I really loved getting to see the tour at the Golden Studio, that was that was really fun. 

Wei: Yeah, this is so fun! 

Hannah: So cool! It's such a cool space. So, so much fun to see. 

Okay, well then I think we'll sign off for tonight. Thank you so much, everybody. This is so much fun. 

Steven: Yes. Thank you both. Thank you, Wei, for the invitation. And thank you, Hannah, for making this possible. I appreciate it greatly. 

Hannah: Yeah, it was so great to see you both. 

Goodnight, everybody. 
Steven: Okay. Thank you.