Le Xi's Creative Journey: Transcending Boundaries

I'm dissatisfied with and don't fully identify with many aspects of reality, but I still maintain an interest in it, because I hope to discover new possibilities by abstracting from reality. In my view, art can create a new kind of reality, one that allows us to transcend the everyday.

I believe that the spaces that truly exist should not be constrained by the categorizations and limitations of society, but should expand the realm of infinite possibilities by reconfiguring the structures and boundaries of reality. This perspective, liberated from pre-existing frameworks, allows me to reshape reality through artistic practice and open up new cognitive dimensions.

Le Xi, Blue Long Grass, Loop, video installation, dimensions variable, silent, 2020. Click

My work "Blue Bladelike Grass" embodies this exploratory practice. It is an video installation that combines animation and sculpture, exploring the rhythmic movements of plants and the organic qualities and manufactured traces between the natural and artificial worlds. This work aims to question and overturn the conventional notions of the categories of "natural" and "artificial."

This video installation breaks down the barrier between the screen and physical space. The animation becomes part of the space, inviting the audience to immerse themselves in the experience of plant movement. The work attempts to create a sense of fluidity between the artificial and the natural, transcending the constraints between narrative and reality, and proposing a hypothesis where the natural and the artificial are inseparable, questioning and reshaping existing classificatory definitions.

By juxtaposing an artificial object (a blue toilet brush) with a natural one (long bladelike grass), I hope to prompt the viewer to reconsider the traditional boundaries and classifications between these conceptual categories. I've used the technique of grafting the toilet brush with the plant, overlaying the similar-shaped shadows of the bladelike grass to recreate the graceful growth and motion. Through the animated simulation of the bladelike grass swaying in the wind, the work aims to evoke a fluid relationship between humans and nature, challenging and breaking down the inherent divisions between the artificial and the natural.

On the one hand, this unexpected visual pairing is intended to shake up conventional assumptions and open up new possibilities. On the other hand, I also hope the work will prompt the viewer to reflect on the connotations and boundaries of the concepts of "natural" and "artificial" themselves. Although the work attempts to achieve a visual and spatial fusion of natural and artificial elements, creating a blurring of boundaries, this does not mean completely erasing the differences between them. Instead, I hope that through contrast and integration, we can reaffirm what "natural" really is, and what constitutes the "artificial."

In this process of exploring the real, my greatest achievement is that I am still engaged in this artistic practice, and in the process, I am constantly growing and progressing. Years of experimental experience have allowed me to discover the various possibilities inherent in uncertainty. While common sense is certainly valuable, in practice, I persist with an open and impartial attitude, striving to affirm those elusive things. I create a precarious relationship between objects and art, where objects can be transformed into artistic forms, and artistic forms can also be transformed into objects. This mutual transformation generates a dynamic tension and uncertainty, which is the artistic realm I pursue.