Meet Ruohan Li | Multimedia Artist & Filmmaker

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

Hi Ruohan, why did you pursue a creative career?
I was born in a small city, Anshan, in the northeast of China. I fell in love with painting when I was 6 and had kept on it since then for almost 20 years. when I was 15 years old, I went to an art high school in Beijing and stepped on my art road thoroughly. I may went on the “bad” track too early as a Chinese saying goes, i’m already on the pirate ship. I’ve been on the pirate ship of Art since I was a kid. For many years, I didn’t need to think deeply why I loved painting and should paint. However, during the time I was in my undergraduate school, CAFA, I found myself really enjoying going on adventures outside more than staying at the studio and painting all day. I love city-walk especially in suburbs of big cities to find out the shadow under the ornate surface. I love observing people living among the hustle and bustle and listening to the stories of individuals. Then I realized painting as the only art language I grasped might be too limited to respond what I experienced. It was time for me to step out of my comfort zone of traditional painting and to explore more. Starting from getting to know more material and media, I tried to make conceptual art by using video, ready-made, synthesis materials, mechanics, body, etc. Sometimes, I chose material and ways to express according to the concept of works. Sometimes, I was inspired by special material and developed ideas based on that. I felt my way of thinking could be flexible and wide. The definition of art to me became way more broader to me.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Art naturally became a big part of me, which was instilled in my blood. At the same time as I was creating art, I felt that art was also molding me into a better person. My art practice involves video art, video installations, readymade, experimental films, performances and is never limited to any single medium. Interdisciplinary collaboration in art is a broad field worth deeply exploring and developing in the future. In my recent projects, I’m collaborating with choreographers, dancers, composers, and animators, which could show me more possibilities and inspirations from other fields and let me find more precise ways to express abstract concepts.

As a Chinese artist living in the United States, I use the perspective of my generation to excavate personal memories and emotions in the context of the vast Chinese cultural background and the conditions of Chinese society. Besides, I’m trying to experience as much as possible in US society. I focus on the comparative study of Eastern and Western cultures, looking for different sources and presenting the power of cultural collision and the beauty of diversity to the audience.

Art makes me genuine to the world, which presents in the way of observation to the world and the attitude of responding to the world. It makes me always stay sensitive and sober. Instead of weaseling out and being dull, I draw the courage from art to fight to the end. Art also teaches me the way of thinking in a certain sense of order. In my opinion, making art is both rational and emotional. Through the perceptual capability art cultivates, I perceive the world clearly and nimbly based on emotion. And then led by rationality, I translate my feelings into concepts and look for precise materials and the way of expression which could convey the concept best to the audience.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Los Angeles is an illusory city awash with pseudo-nature and pseudo-artificiality. It doesn’t sound lovable. But that’s what attracts me to stay here. LA consists of extreme romance and bloody reality. It manifests an attitude of cynicism but at the same time, is filled with worship of consumerism. I guess besides those magnificent museums and splendid gardens and villas, which are rich in culture, I have to take them to see a sunset at Santa Monica beach as well. Because the captivating sunset and the cheesy rollercoaster are showing an extraordinary harmony, which could only happen in LA. The contrasts in big cities, which I really love to observe, always inspire me to think and make art. The artificial mark in natural space forms one of my concerns hiding in my works.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are absolutely many people and inspirations in my artistic path that I want to express my shoutout to. I would love to extend the first shoutout to my family, especially my grandma, for supporting me as always. It was she who first discovered my passion and talent for painting and sent me into a painting studio when I was little. There were so many changes in my childhood, when there were so many opportunities that my love for art could easily have been ignored and deserted. However, she never even hesitated to insist.

I would love to express a shoutout to those teachers, peers and artists who have helped me and who have motivated and inspired me over the years. I’m deeply appreciative of having the opportunity to learn traditional painting techniques as well as experimental art and avant-garde films from them.

I also want to dedicate my shoutout to the inspirations from ordinary objects and phenomena in everyday life, which have provided creative sparks for me. I’m grateful for these glimpses of beauty in the mundane, such as the tidal phenomena that gave me a unique sense of awe, inspiring my solo exhibition “Right Before the Ebb”. Besides, many of my previous works have been influenced by sudden events occurring in China as well.

All of these are invaluable — the support from my family; the art principles taught by the masters and the raw material for expression provided by the world around.

Website: ruohanli.com

Instagram: @lucida07

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ruohan-li-art

Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ruohanli

Image Credits
Ashley Muyan Pei, Areon Mobasher, Zac Zhongxu Chen