Sandcastle is a 30-minute performance exploring themes of land possession and urbanisation through Jolene, Li’s fictional persona.

Set within an installation featuring a handcrafted garden gate accessible to children but requiring adults to crawl through, the performance symbolises territorial boundaries. Beyond the gate lies a soil pit enclosed by a low metal frame, filled with a ton of soil recycled from a nearby construction site—a commentary on the privatisation of land and the transformation of natural landscapes into urban environments.

As the performance commences, a male figure in a black suit serves as supervisor, initiating proceedings with a loud whistle. Jolene, dressed in corporate attire, approaches the supervisor, who hands her a metal bucket.

Crawling through the gate with the bucket in hand, Jolene begins shaping the soil into miniature city blocks using a pre-designed brutalist mould. Jolene’s actions evoke childhood nostalgia associated with sandcastle building at the beach, yet each repeated structure becomes a metaphor for the mechanised processes of urban development characterised by replication and standardisation.

YES YES YES probes the intricate dynamics of control, rebellion, and the cyclical nature of violence inherent within societal constructs, as either a live performance or a video work.

At the heart of the performative exploration lies an L-shaped white office desk adorned with an emergency button. Its central crack serves as a clue of past violence, hinting at layers of turmoil yet to be unveiled.

The activation of this sculpture occurs through Jolene, a fictional character embodying an Asian female persona. Dressed in a school uniform, Jolene exudes palpable frustration and helplessness. In a raw display of anguish, she forcefully collides her head against the desk, leaving behind visible damage—a portrayal of her inner frustration.

With trembling hands, she presses the emergency button, setting in motion a surreal sequence of events. Even in her vulnerability, her grasp on a disproportionately sized stainless steel ruler with sharp edges speaks volumes. Its uneven measurements symbolise systemic injustices. Viewers are encouraged to empathise with Jolene’s struggle against forces beyond her control.

SHAPED consists of three chair sculptures, a performative activation, a scent, a soundscape, and a video installation. This series examines the monotonous urban routine of transitioning from work to bar to home experienced by city office workers.

Crafted from designer furniture, the chair sculptures resemble mass-produced chairs but are hand-altered to restrict functionality. The At Work chair, a modification of the 1930s Brno chair, forces occupants into a submissive posture reminiscent of the ancient Chinese custom of Kowtow. The At Bar chair replaces the solid pole of a 2000s Crescent bar stool with a steel spring, mimicking the instability of a night out.

From the Exhaustion series, the At Home chair reinterprets Giotto Stoppino’s 1970s Cobra chair with an inflatable seat that gradually deflates with the weight of the sitter, symbolising irreversible fatigue. All chair sculptures are positioned on 122 cm squared plinths, delineating the minimal amount of personal space. This piece utilises leftover materials reclaimed from larger production runs, demonstrating a shift towards resourcefulness and sustainability in art fabrication, as well as a divergence from conventional mass-production approaches.

Active Breeze, created with incense maker Junior Adesanya, is made with natural oils like pine, rosemary and cedar, yet it emits an industrial odour like artificial fresheners, evoking attempts to mask undesirable smells.

Angel Landscape, a soundscape made in collaboration with singer and songwriter Magnus Brandt, combines field recordings of London’s frenetic traffic and chatter with digital sounds, all heavily filtered to create the illusion of subdued white noise.

Flesh is a series of ceramic sculptures crafted through an innovative sculpting method. Departing from the artist’s typical exploration of external realities in a minimalist, polished manner, this project delves into our internal conditions in an expressive, painterly approach.

The ceramics are created by applying pressure to rubber forms stuffed with clay, allowing them to react organically. The rubber reacts to the tension and the clay freezes this tension. This process results in abstract, intertwined shapes that evoke a visceral form.

Following this, a complex slip-casting technique transfers the forms into ceramic, followed by additional hand shaping in the leather-hard state to create an exploded effect.

The Next Diner installation blends furniture and utensils to explore the fast-paced, chaotic nature of contemporary city living, drawing inspiration from American diner culture known for its round-the-clock service and nostalgic environment.

A fabricated table top’s sliced-in-half red Americana-style design enhances the narrative of a solitary dining scenario. At its centre lies the Steakcake sculpture, a fusion of greasy steak (main course) and sugary chocolate cake (dessert), symbolising the perpetual mental state of busy city dwellers always looking ahead. Adjacent to it, the Next Diner Spork sculpture represents the multitasking culture prevalent in modern society. It combines a silver fork and a dessert spoon, highlighting the struggle of juggling both steak and cake, ultimately proving ineffective as either utensil.

The custom-designed Next Diner logo appears on napkins and plates, serving as a reminder of society’s relentless pursuit of progress.

One Night is an installation delving into the complexities surrounding sex work. Wrinkles in My Sheet is a vibrant fuchsia sculpture encased inside matching bed sheets, symbolising the lasting impact of sexual activity. Unlike the morning ritual of smoothing out bed creases, this work disrupts order and creates enduring marks, confronting the reality of what may have transpired overnight. It serves as a tactile representation of the emotional and physical trauma experienced by sex workers, addressing broader societal issues such as the lack of support for marginalised groups.

John and I consists of two hotel slippers facing each other, embroidered with pink designs that reveal the silent dialogue between a client and a sex worker. One pair is embellished with the symbols “€€” and “€€€”, representing the transactional nature of the financial exchange. The other pair bears the words “yes” and “or yes”, open to interpretation regarding the dynamics of consent and satisfaction. The title confronts the conventional labelling of clients of sex workers. Despite the term “John” often being pejorative, some workers still use it. Yet, by including “I” in the title, it subtly asserts the agency and autonomy of sex workers in these transactions. This artwork delves into themes of power dynamics, transactional relationships, and individual agency in the context of sex work, shedding light on the intricacies of human interactions.

The Purge Series of digital renders blends the practicality of hospital urinals with the opulence of high-status chairs, resulting in a chair-toilet amalgamation. Unlike the portable commode chairs commonly seen in healthcare settings, these sculptures are weighty, lacking wheels, and adorned with intricate detailing, fusing necessity and prestige.

This juxtaposition reflects on the universal experiences of illness, injury, disability, and mortality, transcending societal divides of wealth and status.

The sculpture presents a reinterpretation of the traditional school chair with a pronounced curved back that serves as a commentary on the constant demands of academia. Drawing inspiration from China’s exam-driven educational structure, it prompts the hypothetical sitter to hunch over the desk, symbolising relentless study.

In the early stages of the project, the artist performed a series of concise performances titled Reading, in which the artist read on the chair, and Napping, in collaboration with fashion brand VeniceW, during which the artist napped on the chair. These were intended to tap into the artist’s high school memories. Subsequently, the artist invited the public to participate in the artwork by adding graffiti to the desk’s surface. This collaborative process resulted in a diverse collection of school experiences and cultivated a communal narrative within the project.

The Uncertainty series of digital renders transforms the familiar chair into a symbol of unpredictability. Through a seemingly straightforward alteration—replacing its stable support pole with a large spring—the chair becomes full of uncertainty, with its eventual tilt direction upon being sat on now entirely indeterminate. In this transformation, the chair mirrors the essence of our daily lives, teeming with unknown variables and unexpected turns.

This exploration encourages viewers to reflect on their own perceptions of ambiguity. While some may perceive uncertainty as a daunting threat, others may embrace it as an exhilarating aspect of life. The incorporation of the spring mechanism prompts reflection on the nature of certainty and human responses to the enigmatic forces that shape our experiences.

The Exhaustion series of digital renders reimagines the ordinary chair as a symbol of fatigue. This is achieved through a simple alteration: replacing the chair’s conventional seat with an air cushion. The hypothetical activation of this cushion, causing it to gradually deflate under the weight of a potential sitter, evokes a representation of irreversible exhaustion.

The Constraint series of digital renders presents the ordinary chair as a symbol of constraint and limitation. While chairs are typically associated with comfort and support, the chairs depicted in this series evoke feelings of confinement. They occupy space in a way that restricts access to the potential sitter’s body, creating an uncomfortable relationship between the human form and the chair.

This series encourages reflection on the relationship between physical space and human experience. By altering the expected function of the chair, these renders prompt viewers to reconsider how everyday objects shape our sense of comfort and confinement. The contrast between the chair’s intended purpose and its perceived limitations offers insight into the impact of objects on our interactions with our environment.

The Bow series of digital renders marks the first iteration of the ‘Chairs’ project, aiming to investigate various bodily discomforts through chair modifications. This series centres on bending the back of the chair to a specific angle, which invites viewers to envision themselves curving their backs when considering sitting on them. This curvature evokes a sense of unease.

The series title, ‘Bow,’ holds multiple meanings. Beyond its association with politeness, particularly in Asian culture where bowing denotes respect, it also conveys notions of obedience and hierarchy. Bowing may signify submission to authority or conformity to social standards. In particular, the term references the kowtow custom prevalent in East Asian cultures, where individuals bow deeply as a gesture of reverence and submission, often to show respect to authority figures or express humility.

The NSC (New Sky CIty) project encompasses a newspaper (NSC 1.0) and a video installation (NSC 2.0), envisioning a dystopian society set in the year 2117 and speculating about the potential trajectory of humanity’s evolution. Utilising analogue and digital design to construct an imaginary world, the project paints a grim portrait of humankind’s post-apocalyptic future.

The project is inspired by Sky City, a planned skyscraper in Changsha, China, intended to be the tallest in the world. However, protests over environmental issues stopped pre-construction activities, leaving the project at a standstill with its foundations repurposed as a fish farm. Despite this, Sky City’s vision sparks the speculative exploration undertaken in the NSC project, where the artist reimagines its realisation for the future.

NSC 1.0 is the artist’s first piece of sci-fi fiction written as a newspaper reporter’s style, printed in mass as a newspaper and distributed to the public in an event at Tate Modern Museum. In the speculative reality about which the artist writes, society has veered to an extreme driven by materialism and hedonism.

Sweatshop & Dream is an installation that transforms the entire gallery space into a darkroom, responding to the harsh realities of sweatshop labour.

The artist was inspired by the tragic suicides at Foxconn factories, which exposed the deplorable working conditions in Chinese factories. These included requiring workers to seek permission for bathroom breaks, thus depriving them of their basic human rights.

Along with collecting numerous reports on Foxconn, the artist also visited small factories in her hometown of Xiamen, China, taking photographs, interviewing labourers, and collecting first-hand information about the cramped spaces, poor lighting, and extreme temperatures.

In the exhibition space, page-by-page copies of the research materials collected during this project are sealed and displayed in transparent plastic bags. As a result of the unsettling darkness, visitors were asked to wear headlamps in order to see the exhibition and read the research materials.