Young Chinese multimedia artist Li Hui employs a vast array of media, materials and techniques to create futuristic installations and "light sculptures" that transcend the boundaries of language, logic and linear time. More an archeologist of the future than a spiritual shaman, Li Hui allows us to viscerally experience the realities of this world while anxiously contemplating the mysteries of the next.

His dazzling special effects are the stuff of science fiction; his themes eternal. On some level, all of Li Hui's works explore questions of life and death, existence and transcendence, materiality and spirituality, technology and humanity. But it is his penchant for melding the organic and the inorganic that foreshadows a world in which mortal and machine have become one, making people indistinguishable from their tools.

V is a collision of energies, a paradox of symmetry and asymmetry, a brief glimpse into an unfathomable, inexpressible, terrifying post-human future.

- Jérôme Sans, UCCA Director

Artist Statement

I think three-dimensional works are meant to express the complicated beauty of space, but this kind of beauty is quite personal; that is what I learned from my art classes when I was in school. However, when I started creating my own works, I realized that my whole concept should be simple and direct, and that it should connect with people's hearts; this might be different from what I learned from school, but at least that is what I have resolved to achieve with my own artistic creations.

I believe in mental communication rather than verbal explanation. To be honest, I don't think art can ever be fully explained in words. According to ancient Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism, when two kinds of energies collide, a new energy emerges. This new energy is unidentified, just like the feeling visitors have when they see my works: it can't be expressed in words. I am always searching for those two different kinds of energies that can express my emotions and my understanding of the world.

I like to challenge myself and experiment with new formats, because I think the history of art has always been written and created by those who dare to take risks. No matter what the case, good artists should never restrict themselves. I also think that all artists should have their own independent world. I hope to complete my own independent world, someday.

Certainly I am still evolving, as are my works. I am always searching for more direct ways to establish heart-to-heart communication with other people. In my work, I have used materials such as transparent hard acrylic, fog, lasers and LEDs. These materials are unique in their own right, but when they are used in a specific way or in a special set of circumstances, they allow the works to better communicate with people, and the effect can be a hundred or a thousand times as powerful as the materials themselves.

- Li Hui