Dinu Li is very relevant to my practice with his work using other media around his photographic images. I have a Group Critique with him next Tuesday and took a look at his work.
‘Dinu Li was born in Hong Kong and currently lives and works in Cornwall, UK. Li is an interdisciplinary artist working with the moving image, photography, sculptural assemblages and performance. In his practice, Li examines the manifestation of culture in the everyday, finding new meaning to the familiar, making visible the seemingly invisible. Archives play an active role in Li’s work, and they are often used as points of departure for his projects. His methodology is research based, with an emphasis on appropriation and reconfiguration. Li’s work is often characterised by problematising the document as part of the modus operandi.’ (Li, Dinu. 2020)
Nation Family achieves the objective I have of adding to my images using other media. I met with Laura Hynd yesterday for my Supervisor review and from her process she has got me to collect sounds from my life such as bird noises, my cat purring, trees rustling or the sea coming in. The mixing of sounds with images and moving images in Dinu’s work are a model to work with.
VEX is very clever looping and thought provoking. All video with words.
Dinu does a lot of work with objects which has been another focus for me recently (see seperate CRJ post The Power of Objects ). ‘We write our own history’ is a perfect example and as I think about my own life and difficult places for me this resonates in a very strong way.

Insights
So many!
- Sound can add so much to an image.
- Video can add to a sequence of images.
- Objects are powerful conveyors of meaning about their owners.
- It takes time to get to this level so I need to be realistic about what can be done in four months.
References
Li, Dinu. 2020. Bio/Videos and Image [online] available at https://www.dinuli.com/Info (Accessed: July 30th, 2020)
Categories: Contextual Research FMP, Final Major Project