Le Xi: The Kitchen and Artistic Creation During the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic made my life feel like living in a cave, where my living room, bedroom, and studio merged into a multifunctional creative space. In this limited environment, my artistic work flourished in a smaller area, prompting me to reevaluate the things around me.

In the kitchen, the water flows gently, and everything I do with the ingredients reminds me how fragile life is. When I prepare fish, the shine of the scales makes me think about how brief life can be. Standing in front of the stainless-steel sink, I see lively life slowly losing its warmth, and it fills me with awe. The kitchen became my only connection to the outside world; it is not just a place for food preparation but also a space for an inner dialogue. During the three years of the pandemic, I thought about ideas like 'fragility,' 'escape,' and 'imprisonment.' Every time I clean the fish, it feels like a ritual of life that lets me sense the vitality and fragility of the ingredients. In that moment, the boundary between people and food seems to blur, and I realize that all aspects of life are intertwined.

Le Xi, Water flows in Fish, 01:02(Loop), video, dimensions variable, 2021

Building on this inner dialogue, I started using my phone to capture daily life, caught between phone pictures and lively experiences. This tangled situation made me question the role of material things and revealed the hidden emptiness in everyday life. I tried to capture the emptiness that happens when an image is separated from its physical form. My work, Water flows in Fish, came from this context. I try to show the image of the fish gradually becoming blurry in the water, disappearing along with the flow. I want to create a space for reflection on the difference between fragility and resilience—an open space for thought where people can consider two different perspectives and explore how life intertwines and evades, much like paying attention to traffic when crossing the street

The kitchen is not just a place for cooking; it is also a source of inspiration for my artistic creation. Every time I handle ingredients, I reflect on the meaning of life. The pandemic has made me cherish these small moments more, realizing how art permeates daily life. Through documentation and reflection, I continuously experience the relationship between fragility and resilience and the boundaries that disappear between them. Every drop of water and every piece of food in the kitchen reminds me of life's gradual changes and calmness. I began to interact within my own situation, combining perception and experience to redefine the boundaries of our existence.