Hi, my name is Lily Fei (Wenli). I am a senior in the Fine Arts department. I’m originally from China and my primary art practice is painting. I also tend to work interdisciplinary alongside with my painting practice. I work with 4D mediums such as 3D-animated film, creative codings/hardware hacking/device art, VR-based environment. I work with different topics throughout the time that particularly interests me or triggers me.
One of my recent painting series Lost in Moment is developed under the topic post-feminism, aiming to search for empowerment through hypersexualization of the female. I started working (mainly painting) under this topic three years ago when I first found myself interested in depicting erotic female figures.
The distinction of being sexy and sexual is made through my work; it simply is the difference of woman being the subject of their own sexuality versus being the objects of someone else’s desire. Women now can choose to be objectified and sexualized without interfering with the perception of traditional femininity. The sexualization of the female figure in my work draws attention to how limiting so-called choices can be in previous feminism movement. Sexuality is the source of power. Voluntary sex worker should receive support without judgment; it is merely her own choice.
Above are some photos for this painting series. The fourth painting is not finished yet.
Creative Coding work:
My Estimated Fertility
http://www.lilyfei.xyz/my-estimated-fertility/
I also work with 3D animations and VR environments under the topic of digital colonialism/technological domination. Express my concerns about the rapid development of technology and the obscure border between control and freedom on the internet. This allows technology companies take advantage from their users further control and surveil. We can look from the Facebook Cambridge Analytica Scandal and realize that now these companies have the power to shift the political atmosphere. As an information technology company has collected more data, people are now able to be analyzed through the received data. Thus constructing a “digital body” that increases the level of control and surveillance, blurring the line between privacy and security under the surface of freedom and user empowerment.
The service that they provided to political candidates in America may be considered exceeding the proper line. However, where should we draw the line when it comes to data collection and analyzation? The development of technology provides accessibility and connectivity to the users. While users are enjoying the efficiency through user empowerment, it gives an illusion that we have the freedom on the internet, while the freedom is just a shiny surface. There is no freedom on the internet, and the ring of technology has provided a space that users have nowhere to hide. We can see this situation from another perspective, this ability to know what every citizen is up to and what every citizen post, read and write has no recent precedent. This situation could have only happened in a small town/village that has a small number of population, and what is more frightening is that we do not have any culture means of dealing with this kind of situation. Us as users of the ring of technology now are unable to understand what is going on, while our location tracked, our identity registered, and a structure built that make people transparent to a certain level. It is a ring of technology that if we had ever depended on any type of freedom, we are pretty much screwed. Data mining are the process of digitization of the humankind.
It is cynical that internet company does this to be a part of the big structure and to survive in this world, but this is a proof for the fact that now we have nowhere to hide and there will be no more secrets. It is impossible to evade technological surveillance at all at this point, whereas the technology has made the surveillance cheap enough for a purchase.
Last year I have been working with 4D medium and working collaboratively with people to produce media work. Swimming Through Cubic Gates is a short film produced using 3D-scanning and 3D-animation, later incorporated with a face-recognition code.
http://www.lilyfei.xyz/swimming-through-cubic-gates/
In Swimming Through Cubic Gates (04:13)
Lily Fei (Animation)
Michelle Guterman (Sound)
Liliana Farber (Software)
We are thinking of face recognition as new data in the age of technological domination.
There is the inescapable argument of what constitutes as security and what constitutes surveillance. Can surveillance techniques be used to surveil themselves? What happens when it is purposely abstracted? What is the logical limit it can be pushed to? And what happens when facial recognition data transcends that limit? Here we draw a circular narrative, one that may ultimately have no end.
My interests in my practice come from my observation, concerns, and conflicts between the outside world and inner thoughts. It may often start with a simple question like why is everyone on their phone all the time. I tend to read and research on the topic that triggers me. After all, artworks are providing different vision and ways of seeing that communicates between the artist and the audience.
Looking forward, I want to develop and focus more on my painting practice for this semester. I will also work collaboratively with the 4D medium. For now, I am finishing up the 4th painting and about to start another one. I will need more painting works in my portfolio for the application of my master degree. My long-term goal in the future is to be able to sustain myself as a full-time artist. My short-term goal is to finish up my grad school application and be able to produce work more selectively.
I do have schedules and deadline lined up. I’m planning to work with 4D medium more next semester. I’m uncertain about which topic I will develop more for my thesis yet because two of them doesn’t seem going together very well. I do enjoy working with creative coding very much, but for now, I’m not sure if I can merge these two topics enough to become a complete body of work.
I also do enjoy working collaboratively. I found the process to be mesmerizing that often produce stronger work.
“Prosciutto”
In collaboration with Tanwa
