Li Shuang

Li Shuang received her MA in media studies from New York University in 2014. She currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Yiwu, China. Situated in globalized communication systems and inspired by various localities and uneven information flows, Li’s work, which encompass performance, interactive websites, sculpture and moving image installations, studies various mediums composing the contemporary digital landscape. Crucial to this practice is the interaction between the medium and its users as well as amongst the mediums themselves. These diverse forms of intimacy form a motif that runs through the artists practice, as she explores how various forms of technology bring us into contact, and how they form part of a neoliberal apparatus that regulates the body and desire. Yet her focus is not limited to the virtual, but also includes the material lives of those digital landscapes, such as the infrastructure and logistics systems that support it, and more importantly, the cracks in between. T is a 4-channel video, with music by Eli Osheyack, performance and voiceover by Naomi Yu. Taking imagery of feet as a starting point, Li subtly interweaves the experience of a customer service representative (positioned as a straight, cis male) of a Taobao women’s socks online retailer, with reminiscent self-narrations, internet slangs, and cultural symbols. Through the non-linear narratives and fragmented visuals, the film exposes the stereotypes imposed onto sexuality within the familial and social constructs, and its performativity in a virtual, suppositional world.

This film was exhibited at OCAT Shanghai, X Museum, Beijing, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York in 2020; Centre Pompidou in collaboration w/ Mao Jihong Foundation, Chengdu, Taikang Space, Beijing in 2018.