To begin, can you give us an overview of your artistic practice? Any significant moments or specific artworks that were instrumental in shaping or reorienting your artistic trajectory?

My artistic practice mainly focuses on visual aspects, but is not limited to "photography". I often combine images with handmade books, videos, text, and installations to create an immersive and emotionally layered viewing experience. I am more concerned with 'relationships', especially the complex dynamics in intimate relationships, such as the emotional structure between mother and daughter, the identity transition of women in multiculturalism, and how social expectations are subtly embedded in our bodies. Most people know me through my work 'Mother's Daughter', which is currently the most important work for me.

One of the primary focuses of your practice is depicting personal and social identities among East Asian women. Having a language that is deeply focused on female perspectives. How did you become interested in depicting these themes? Are there any particular moments that clicked for you?

I believe that only through experience can one truly gain deep understanding. My perception of the same thing often changes before and after experiencing it—sometimes even becoming completely opposite. Because of this, I hope to create works that engage with society from my own perspective. I don’t want to stay immersed in my own world; instead, I hope the audience feels an indescribable sense of resonance when viewing my work. This is what led me to explore the perspective of East Asian women—a direction that emerged directly from my life experience.

One of the most important turning points for me was when I decided to create a mother-daughter series. I came across a line in a book that said, “Sometimes I find my mom jealous of me.” That sentence struck me like a revelation—it helped me find the emotional starting point for my work. Because even though the statement seems to go against common sense, it’s true. It touches something hidden, yet real.

That’s what I want my work to do as well: to express hidden emotions and social undercurrents that often go unspoken. Just as literature can resonate with readers, I believe visual art has the same potential. At several exhibitions, the feedback I received from the audience confirmed that I had achieved that connection.

In your artist statement, you mentioned that “each photograph serves as a portal into the emotional nuances of these relationships, where intimacy, conflict, and cultural expectations collide”. Can you deconstruct this for us?

Each of my works tells a story, and I treat them as keys to unlock the door to memory. In intimate relationships, both positive and negative memories are stored. I view photography as an emotional container and a gateway to reflection—one that allows us to re-enter those neglected or repressed emotional spaces. For example, intimacy in a photograph may be conveyed through physical proximity, eye contact, or small details of daily life. But at the same time, conflict is often embedded in these images—such as unspoken expectations, generational misunderstandings, or cultural pressure. These conflicts may not be overt or dramatic; they are often subtle, implicit, but nonetheless real.

By “cultural expectations,” I refer more broadly to societal pressures. As an East Asian woman who has lived in both China and the UK—and as the daughter of a working mother who experienced the rapid transformation of China’s economy after the reform and opening-up—we are constantly navigating cultural norms and standards. What defines a “good daughter” or a “good mother”? What is considered “success”? How should one balance family and career? We hold different answers to these questions, and in doing so, we influence and reshape one another. These tensions and expectations quietly shape our behavior and permeate the emotional dynamics of our intimate relationships.

Your work spans a diverse range of mediums, including photography, video, text, handmade books, and installations. How do you ensure it remains consistently rooted in deep emotional and sensory experiences, and what principles guide your choice of subjects?

Photography and video are the mediums of expression I became familiar with as I grew up. But even earlier in my childhood, I was always writing, drawing, and making handmade books. So when I set out to create a work rooted in my personal experience—about growth and family memories—I naturally returned to the things I used to do again and again as a child. That’s also why, when working on the Mother’s Daughter series, I chose not to have the book printed. Instead, I hand-sewed the book cover myself—just like I once tried to sew up a leaking balloon with a needle and thread at my grandmother’s house during the summer I was ten.

Where there is a cause, there is a result. My past experiences have quietly led me to the materials and methods I use today.

Your pieces aim to be conversational starters on the intersections of culture, gender, and social environments. Ultimately, fostering empathy and deeper understanding. Do you have a particular series of work that embodies this goal?

My work 'Mother's Daughter' takes my relationship with my mother as the starting point, and after this work, I created 'Couple Observation Diary' focusing on gender relations. These two series attempt to touch upon the broader "emotional responsibility," "identity reconstruction," and "intergenerational communication dilemma" faced by East Asian women in multicultural contexts. I choose to approach from such a very private perspective because I believe that many macro social and cultural issues ultimately emerge in the details of personal life. For me, photography is not just a visual expression, but also a philosophical inquiry, a deep questioning of who I am.

What visual and technical tools do you employ to achieve this, and have you observed different responses to your work from various audiences and genders?

I presented some of the images in an installation-based format, extending certain objects from within the photographs into the physical exhibition space to give the work a stronger sense of narrative. I also made careful material choices—for example, using translucent PVC, which creates a distinctive interplay of light and shadow. In addition to hanging the images in the exhibition, I edited them into a handmade book. This format requires the viewer to touch the work, making the act of viewing an intimate experience. At the same time, I use text and sound to assist in narration. For example, I once made my work in the form of slides, and the audience would associate them with their own electronic photo albums and videos. At that moment, the inclusion of my mother’s voice messages, our chat transcripts, and text drawn from memory helped to deepen the emotional layers of the work.

When engaging with audiences of different genders, I initially expected to see noticeable differences in response—but in reality, I didn’t. Female viewers often found deep resonance in the work. Some even wept during the exhibition or wrote down stories about their own mothers. Many opened up to me about their experiences growing up, their entanglements with their mothers, and long-held feelings of guilt. I see these moments of emotional connection as the point where the artwork is truly “opened.” At first, I assumed male viewers would take on more of a detached, observational role. But instead, they stood in front of the work with real focus, and many initiated conversations about their own families. I could see that they were making a conscious effort to show respect—both for the work and for their own familial experiences. This is beyond my imagination and has also changed some of my inherent thinking.

Could you elaborate on the artwork titled 'Mutual Discontent,' the creative process, and the visual and conceptual underpinnings that informed its creation?

The inspiration for Mutual Discontent came from something people often say to me: "You speak and move exactly like your mother—it’s obvious you’re mother and daughter.” Comments like this made me wonder whether the emotional bond between a mother and daughter is somehow already inscribed in our body language.

I decided to express our connection in a way that avoided facial features or clothing.  I chose the exposed back as the central visual element. We stand with our backs to the camera—no faces, no garments—only our most natural, relaxed postures. And yet, even without seeing our faces, viewers can immediately sense a certain resemblance, a physical and emotional linkage between us. It’s a connection embedded in posture, silhouette, and muscular memory. I composed our bodies into two stable triangular forms—formally referencing the triadic dynamic of mother–daughter–society, and symbolizing a structure that appears stable but is full of tension.

The work is titled Mutual Discontent, not because we dislike each other, but because it reflects a subtler and more honest emotional state. As a daughter, I used to tell myself repeatedly, "I must never become like her." But ironically, as I grew older, I found myself inevitably becoming more and more like my mother—in the way I speak, the way I handle relationships, even in how I worry about the world. That resemblance is both frightening and tender. It contains a deep emotional tension between resistance, inheritance, projection, and identification. With this work, I hoped to capture that complicated emotional state—where love is entangled with resentment, and resentment still carries love. I also hope viewers can recognize their own quiet, unspoken connections to their mothers and families through this piece.

How does being a visual artist and photographer straddling the cultural landscapes of both China and the UK influence your work?

I often feel the cultural divide. On the one hand, it is because the cultural atmosphere in China and the UK is different, and the mainstream aesthetic and educational trends are different. On the other hand, due to China's rapid development, the process of one to two hundred years has been compressed into thirty to fifty years, so young people who have received higher education often feel caught between traditional and new cultures. Especially for girls, from being unable to work in the past to striving for gender equality in the workplace, to balancing both career and family, this is a very painful but meaningful process, and there will be too many voices around. They bear conflicting expectations from different cultures in seemingly free and open environments.

This sense of wandering and confinement has become a recurring theme in my works, and it is the dilemma of women that I hope to express in my works. Whether in China or the UK, I believe women are facing these issues. However, my cross-border life experience will have more national and regional characteristics. I hope to delve deeper into my own experience and elevate my personal narrative to an artistic expression with a social dimension.

From your perspective, how do art and artistic creation bridge the gap between global societal and political issues and the general public?

The reason why I create art with emotions as the starting point is because I believe that these distant issues can be transformed into content that can be "perceived" and directly related to human experience, thereby bringing the public and the issue closer together. Although I focus on the identity construction and cultural situation of East Asian women, many viewers - regardless of where they come from - will feel similar emotions in my works, such as tension and intimacy with their mothers, or confusion about their "self position". This kind of empathy is the most penetrating part of art. When I saw a major called Urban Photography at a university in the UK, which means using photography to solve urban problems, I had no doubt that it was something that artists could do. Artistic creation can be infinitely bold, and we can express it in a concise, humorous, and sharp way, just like a talk show, even if some of the creations are offensive, it is still a driving force; We can also showcase the warmth of society through methods such as documentary photography. These are all forms of art that the public sees, and they are ways for the public to gain a better understanding of global culture and politics.

Finally, what message would you like to leave for our readers?

If I can leave something through my work, I hope it is a possibility of being understood. I hope the audience watching my work can feel: 'Oh, so there are people in this world who share the same ideas as me.' Even if it's just a moment, when the audience sees themselves in my work or remembers an important but overlooked emotion in their life, it's the most meaningful response for me.

Learn more about the artist here.

Cover image:

60, Mother's Daughter series by Helen Mengzhu Li.

All images courtesy of Helen Mengzhu Li.