Meet Emi Sun

We had the good fortune of connecting with Emi Sun and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Emi, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Artistic creation is a lifelong journey of self-healing for me, and it’s a positive experience that I wish to share with the world. I am deeply engaged with themes of vulnerabilities, physical touch and love. I practice in various mediums, and I especially focus on the concept of games. By crafting rules, spaces, and interactions, I invite participants to explore and evoke new feelings about connection, relationships, and love. My hope is to continue creating such works, encouraging people to rethink these themes through a serious yet playful approach.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I enjoy working with different mediums. My creations are mainly divided into two categories: touchable and digital. Touchable refers to physical works, encompassing performance art, wearable sculptures, board games, interactive books, and beyond.

In my touchable works, I often use human bodies as a playground. “Soft Games” (2021) is a fashion collection I designed as a part of MICA Multi Media Event. Inspired by children’s touch books, I designed flowers, houses and cars on the clothes are all three-dimensional, touchable and interactive. Models need to touch each other’s bodies to “play”. Similarly, “Body Twister” (2018), and “Finger Twister” (2023), these experimental games require participants to engage in physical contact according to the rules. Hugging is also an important theme of my works, such as in “Hug Monster” (2019), a performance where I wore a coat covered in pom-poms and invited the audience to hug me. These works challenge the boundaries of individual bodily perception and potential relationships with others.

During my graduate studies, I focused more on digital creations like video games and animation films which can incorporate more storytelling. I can present pain and vulnerability more concretely through narratives. After overcoming challenges, I hope the characters I create can be loved, give love, and gain the power of love.

My indie video game “MeMoMi” (2022, avaliable on Steam) tells a story of a girl exploring and saving herself inside a body-like world full of diseases and problems. Players have to make conflicting and cruel choices, contemplating their emotional complexities, which lead the story to different endings. The central themes of self-healing and self-love are integrated into the game’s structure, inviting the audience and players to explore and accept these ideas in a fun and engaging way.

“Piano Hand”(2024) is my first independent animated film. It combines gaming aesthetic, tells a story of a little girl exploring a piano game world with her hands. However, as the “levels” become harder, they become aware of their physical limits, leading to conflicts between the girl and her hands. In fact, I have no experience playing the piano, but in this story, I repeatedly explored the relationship between a person and their body, as well as their relationship with themselves. In the end, the girl accepts her short fingers and enjoys the rough notes she plays. This is a story of self-acceptance.

It is challenging to switch to a new medium of creation, however, it’s very necessary for me to ask myself why a particular story must be a particular media. An idea has to be an animation while another idea must be a game, aiming to combine the theme and interactive form in the best way to provide a unique experience for the audience or participants.

On the other hand, creation is painful, it is a dialogue with my inner self. Self-love has been a long-term topic of my contemplation, whether it’s physically embracing and appreciating myself or spiritually self-healing and self-saving. Fortunately, I always have many soft-hearted people around me who help, listen, and guide me at crucial moments. Through my works, I hope to make the audience feel this softness and treat themselves gently.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is an interesting topic! LA is a crazy city filled with delicious food and a vacation vibe, but I personally care more about the quiet and gentle details of life. Whenever my best friend comes to visit, we always go to Echo Park, bring corn kernels to feed the ducks. I also love to bring friends to markets. The monthly vintage market in Topanga is always amazing!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Absolutely, I wholeheartedly agree. I’m a person who has a unique appearance. Due to a rare skin condition I was born with, I have to face a lot of physical challenges, also, my skin looks very different from others. This condition did bring many sad situations while I grew up, meanwhile, I experienced many beautiful things because of this uniqueness—unconditional love, ways of self-love, the perspective of understanding others’ , creative inspiration, and more.

I always feel incredibly lucky and am amazed by the power of love. In my creation, I also love to explore love. Whether through interactive works or with stories, the essence of my creation is to bring warmth, softness to people’s hearts, and reflections on love.

Website: emisun.net

Instagram: emisun_yining

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emi-yining-sun-61489b205/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@emiy.sungame2532

Other: https://emi-sun.itch.io/ 

Image Credits
Christopher Hall Wen Yi Su Sophie Ng Aaron Mack Xinru Du Jingshi Liang