https://kwanq.cargo.site Kwan Q Li Sat, 11 Apr 2026 12:55:05 +0000 https://kwanq.cargo.site en https://kwanq.cargo.site/Index-1 Fri, 10 Dec 2021 17:26:11 +0000 Kwan Q Li https://kwanq.cargo.site/Index-1 https://kwanq.cargo.site/Mobile-Work Tue, 07 Dec 2021 03:54:25 +0000 Kwan Q Li https://kwanq.cargo.site/Mobile-Work + IMAGE Weeds and Frog Weeds, Germinating Greenhouse Weeps Quasi-immigrants Queeniland + MOVING IMAGE O, Engrave You New Invisible Nudes Infinite Replicas Non-arrival, Yet, in Proximity No Humans in the City Insomniac/Amnesiac Algae Dream &nbsp; Victoria, Tentatively + PERFORMANCE/LECTURE Who Cares about Yesterday’s Rain? Poems are the Unleashed Tides of Muteness Receptions Prototype + INFO https://kwanq.cargo.site/Weeds-and-Frog Sat, 11 Apr 2026 12:55:05 +0000 Kwan Q Li https://kwanq.cargo.site/Weeds-and-Frog Weeds at frogTOPIA open (2026) Site-specific installation. 17 inkjet prints, wood-mounted or in scavenged frames, sizes varied. Exhibition Text (PDF) Kwan Queenie Li: ‘Weeds’ at frogTOPIA open is an intergenerational intervention unfolding between two practices that blur the boundaries between art and the everyday. The gathering celebrates an artistic passion that embraces performativity and improvisation, and a shared commitment to living art as life. A series of weed photographs were subtly embedded and half-hidden within the dynamic environment of Frog King’s studio at Cattle Depot. Visitors are invited to wander through this living archive, tracing the interplay between Frog King’s exuberant visual universe and Li’s quieter, weed-like interventions. The launch event also served as open space for young “kid-artists” to draw, engage, and respond directly to Frog King’s relentless imagery and Li’s weedy constellations, contributing to an ongoing collective happening within Frog King’s studio. <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/02189aa6c3fc649d784d89618c3d024420fc95ac640887db418370947d4ede2f/DSC00917.jpg" data-mid="247071751" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/02189aa6c3fc649d784d89618c3d024420fc95ac640887db418370947d4ede2f/DSC00917.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e3a3ef19fc3b8b51f5285c76dfb2821cb727778ac40cfe341250b092919185f0/DSC00945.jpg" data-mid="247071717" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e3a3ef19fc3b8b51f5285c76dfb2821cb727778ac40cfe341250b092919185f0/DSC00945.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fb0ae3340ab8df1177277174e1e0f0cc3ded47505429f1e8312f20d6d1948556/DSC00940-Edit.jpg" data-mid="247071718" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fb0ae3340ab8df1177277174e1e0f0cc3ded47505429f1e8312f20d6d1948556/DSC00940-Edit.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/78e74bea68546b028fe20c2bd40021c9d09d17add09f2f131e3b6548479d1cef/DSC00943.jpg" data-mid="247071750" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/78e74bea68546b028fe20c2bd40021c9d09d17add09f2f131e3b6548479d1cef/DSC00943.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e47568fc9b22bb14c62454a79007b2aae9a9276541a65aec293071e69f80f824/DSC00814.jpg" data-mid="247071712" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e47568fc9b22bb14c62454a79007b2aae9a9276541a65aec293071e69f80f824/DSC00814.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4c216ea2d2d760464afd76cccf07f0a173ea4d54c000e17f5d60c6e5e057eecb/DSC00749.jpg" data-mid="247071707" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4c216ea2d2d760464afd76cccf07f0a173ea4d54c000e17f5d60c6e5e057eecb/DSC00749.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b6010238ac45a247844a4ac7ad1e38fca3ad1587cf7a6197a39b37a70b288f72/DSC00801.jpg" data-mid="247071711" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b6010238ac45a247844a4ac7ad1e38fca3ad1587cf7a6197a39b37a70b288f72/DSC00801.jpg" /> <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3068e1daa75086378728fbb380e073b6bbb27fe06bc2ebd635c39db5e103deb1/combined.jpg" data-mid="247071919" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3068e1daa75086378728fbb380e073b6bbb27fe06bc2ebd635c39db5e103deb1/combined.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7ec21f54eb944436a8cc6974f4454aaada9b28641b9b79b54f7f8a5e3ac4a3d0/DSC00922.jpg" data-mid="247071713" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7ec21f54eb944436a8cc6974f4454aaada9b28641b9b79b54f7f8a5e3ac4a3d0/DSC00922.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2a44079dc9b09265fa79ff8b9c7d4397c0cf8b4f5234a4e1e611f93ba308b16c/DSC00947.jpg" data-mid="247071706" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2a44079dc9b09265fa79ff8b9c7d4397c0cf8b4f5234a4e1e611f93ba308b16c/DSC00947.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/013cc4b53b312addf8f89bce059a203788d795712e93eaff662fc524dc4da95a/DSC00710.jpg" data-mid="247071708" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/013cc4b53b312addf8f89bce059a203788d795712e93eaff662fc524dc4da95a/DSC00710.jpg" /> ↑ Installation documentation. <img width="3310" height="2340" width_o="3310" height_o="2340" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/90552a73ade79ddd3af21842c35925927ff715e1bd462444545c9c517af093ef/02042026102108-0001_Page_1.jpg" data-mid="247071977" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/90552a73ade79ddd3af21842c35925927ff715e1bd462444545c9c517af093ef/02042026102108-0001_Page_1.jpg" /> <img width="3310" height="2340" width_o="3310" height_o="2340" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/55250198f796f11342cc4506020d70969c8ee39bf1d5e6ba17635e0224b51fdd/02042026102108-0001_Page_2.jpg" data-mid="247071978" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/55250198f796f11342cc4506020d70969c8ee39bf1d5e6ba17635e0224b51fdd/02042026102108-0001_Page_2.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/39db710e553854fba954d856ca3aeef8fe1a34ba64ab63729dd6605eaa544ae9/DSC00948.jpg" data-mid="247072023" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/39db710e553854fba954d856ca3aeef8fe1a34ba64ab63729dd6605eaa544ae9/DSC00948.jpg" /> <img width="2340" height="3310" width_o="2340" height_o="3310" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/16197527a724ce10622a8ed4faf5eb7f874c5f9f5c34d260b46ed202dde3945e/02042026102108-0001_Page_4.jpg" data-mid="247071987" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/16197527a724ce10622a8ed4faf5eb7f874c5f9f5c34d260b46ed202dde3945e/02042026102108-0001_Page_4.jpg" /> <img width="3310" height="2340" width_o="3310" height_o="2340" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/68e0e259047facd9b4fedb1c5c483ced7c81e4f8ea99f93155f030ef319330b1/02042026102108-0001_Page_3.jpg" data-mid="247071979" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/68e0e259047facd9b4fedb1c5c483ced7c81e4f8ea99f93155f030ef319330b1/02042026102108-0001_Page_3.jpg" /> <img width="1753" height="2479" width_o="1753" height_o="2479" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ef0c84e596093ec63e70334a3f5d05b814915cf28c4c4796058dfcce1621448b/handout2_Page_3.jpg" data-mid="247072072" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ef0c84e596093ec63e70334a3f5d05b814915cf28c4c4796058dfcce1621448b/handout2_Page_3.jpg" /> &nbsp; Write Wild! event archive. https://kwanq.cargo.site/Weeds Sat, 11 Dec 2021 01:49:29 +0000 Kwan Q Li https://kwanq.cargo.site/Weeds Weeds: A Germinating Theory (2025) Published by MACK (link) Silkscreen printed hardcover 12.5 x 18cm, 160 pages ISBN 978-1-917651-25-7 October 2025 Book launch and conversation with Kelly Ma @Head Hi, NYC, Feb 2026. (link) Special Book Club @AA Bookshop, London, Feb 2026. (link) For over a decade, artist and theorist Kwan Queenie Li has been photographing weeds across the world. From Jerusalem to Shanghai, Varanasi to Athens, Cairo to Mexico City, she has trained her attention on these unintended but ubiquitous inhabitants of the contemporary urban sphere, finding them dwelling in corners and cracks, in spaces suspended between uses, in ruins and on construction sites. This essay in image and text proposes a new view of cities that learns from the weed’s point of view, dissolving familiar categories and temporalities to see cities as evolving and often undefined spaces, replete with opportunity. Weeds organically defy phenomena that are taken for granted as immovable: walls, borders, history, and prescribed identities. They are registers of the real lives of cities – of disuse and neglect, but also freedom and porousness. Out-of-place by definition, they offer a new perspective on the idea of ‘place’ itself, and the ways it shapes and is shaped by its inhabitants. <img width="3000" height="1969" width_o="3000" height_o="1969" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/04917c4335dfadbf19772878b0dbee2710bcb58864144d081ead1a9c9881623b/cover---back2.jpg" data-mid="240006215" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/04917c4335dfadbf19772878b0dbee2710bcb58864144d081ead1a9c9881623b/cover---back2.jpg" /> <img width="3000" height="1969" width_o="3000" height_o="1969" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/daad3cedad0d5842d4aedffced6940e3f6f6ac25da4045c3ae9dc8b9d0acbfed/p56-57.jpg" data-mid="240006294" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/daad3cedad0d5842d4aedffced6940e3f6f6ac25da4045c3ae9dc8b9d0acbfed/p56-57.jpg" /> <img width="3000" height="1969" width_o="3000" height_o="1969" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4d30d51d83e718093512609d45ac699ff48f9084e87b5b00d8f3cb62c0d5ed54/p.88-89.jpg" data-mid="240006223" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4d30d51d83e718093512609d45ac699ff48f9084e87b5b00d8f3cb62c0d5ed54/p.88-89.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f3864ed26b641274c0191243ec3d82b7e3b3e566e5873d248d038c1c26c85b7d/weeds-install_2.jpg" data-mid="240135221" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f3864ed26b641274c0191243ec3d82b7e3b3e566e5873d248d038c1c26c85b7d/weeds-install_2.jpg" /> ↑ Installation impresssions. &nbsp;Found frames. <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c3d14f0a7833d0f558da8a3f513016af2e4a01313bdbc992d9c2c44cc8f33ead/Untitled-Mexico-City--2022-24.jpg" data-mid="223667745" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c3d14f0a7833d0f558da8a3f513016af2e4a01313bdbc992d9c2c44cc8f33ead/Untitled-Mexico-City--2022-24.jpg" /> <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/42c688f80705f7ac1cda12c9b31d39b59689ee2f0099b00500e74ec8555c9568/Untitled-Madrid--2018-17.jpg" data-mid="223668211" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/42c688f80705f7ac1cda12c9b31d39b59689ee2f0099b00500e74ec8555c9568/Untitled-Madrid--2018-17.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1198423cbb160f8cd6d1d3b71669837db2c5f966d6d070320ede4069705f3668/Untitled-London--2025-6.jpg" data-mid="236855973" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1198423cbb160f8cd6d1d3b71669837db2c5f966d6d070320ede4069705f3668/Untitled-London--2025-6.jpg" /> <img width="5424" height="3616" width_o="5424" height_o="3616" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/878c2714a04d825356ecc0b70cd72e24134bcd8b827e9d29b68c8f58f7c6aabb/Untitled-Mexico-City--2022-23.jpg" data-mid="223667751" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/878c2714a04d825356ecc0b70cd72e24134bcd8b827e9d29b68c8f58f7c6aabb/Untitled-Mexico-City--2022-23.jpg" /> <img width="5300" height="3533" width_o="5300" height_o="3533" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cc579a096938910f849923061dbd20246a5d578a2b3a002a1d03e4f0caf22a9b/Untitled-Madrid--2018-7.jpg" data-mid="223667896" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cc579a096938910f849923061dbd20246a5d578a2b3a002a1d03e4f0caf22a9b/Untitled-Madrid--2018-7.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b98e5cdfef04c58ba5c71ad20ba7b56707ea85d9eb4083ed63eb15b71aefd345/Untitled-Saqqara--2025-2.jpg" data-mid="236855974" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b98e5cdfef04c58ba5c71ad20ba7b56707ea85d9eb4083ed63eb15b71aefd345/Untitled-Saqqara--2025-2.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9a0a3326d26096f48ab784ee794bb1b9e5c5584e31670c8a503e9177413aa2dd/Untitled-Singapore--2025--1.jpg" data-mid="236855966" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9a0a3326d26096f48ab784ee794bb1b9e5c5584e31670c8a503e9177413aa2dd/Untitled-Singapore--2025--1.jpg" /> &nbsp; ← Selected images →&nbsp; Reviewed by Gavin Van Horn, Places JournalIf one purpose of a book is to draw attention to worlds that are ignored or unconsidered, then Weeds: A Germinating Theory is a successful book. Author and visual artist Kwan Queenie Li turns our awareness toward forgotten and disregarded green microcosms. More than mere biological persistence — there are plants in the cracks of the concrete — Li pursues a larger philosophical theme: to transgress, to be “matter out of place” (to use anthropologist Mary Douglas’s famous phrase), is a weed’s role. Weeds mark the edges of order and help us to consider how comfortable, or uncomfortable, we are with porosity.“Weeds are storytellers,” Li avers, “whispering countless tales of a city’s development.” The brevity of the book belies its scope, for Li’s reflections span the globe, from Shanghai to Cairo to major metropolises in between. In these various contexts, weeds track larger entwinements between cultural impositions and nature’s improvisations. Some compelling choices are made in Weeds. Li does not offer her personal qualifications or backstory until near the conclusion of the book. This serves, by default, to foreground the reader’s experiences and impressions. Li acts as an unobtrusive guide to tendrilling vines, hardy ferns, and creeping mosses, scrappy city creatures otherwise at risk of being ignored or missed. Text and image are comparably intertwined, with more than 150 photographs scattered through the volume, so that readers may pause and let their eyes search not just left to right but over, across, and around each page, much as one might scan the cityscape when traversing a sidewalk. The images do their own work — convincing, provoking, encouraging one to comb the cracks for tenacious green. Capital and its movement typically dominate in urban areas, reducing resistance and paving over the inconvenient. Weeds, in this context, become a silent form of protest. These plants, Li writes, “encourage us to see the city not merely as a functional space, but as a set of unplanned opportunities,” and she allows readers to form their own impressions about what these opportunities might be. As lepidopterist Robert Michael Pyle has written, nothing “is less vacant than a vacant lot.” This book amplifies that perspective and fittingly concludes not with a statement but with a comparable question: “Is this a weed?” https://kwanq.cargo.site/Greenhouse-weeps Sun, 23 Nov 2025 09:35:00 +0000 Kwan Q Li https://kwanq.cargo.site/Greenhouse-weeps Sometimes I Hear the Greenhouse Weeps (ongoing) Everything in the greenhouse is perfectly fabricated, yet this impeccability exudes a distinct oddness. Artificial insects, decorated infrastructure, uncommon neighbouring plants. The arid leaves make no sound, amid the stringently conditioned atmosphere in the early hours of a cloudy day. Tourists are scant, making brief visits to each room. The silence feels subtly unusual. There is a sense of stiffness — almost suppression — bouncing within the metal frames as the architecture expands. The botanicals stand still within humanity’s voracious scientific gaze, far, far, far away from home, marginalised. Who are these heavily guarded specimens, cosmetically composed, yet deprived of total freedom? The temperate peace and placidity are orchestrated projections funded by our entrance fee. Sometimes I hear the greenhouse weeps, just slightly softer than the ventilating machine. Melancholy is a greenhouse. <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/05f0cd0589fcf3d68cb6b4b2ae599157f385f3daa18667e605c7a149000edf7e/Sometimes...greenhouse-62.jpg" data-mid="240993673" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/05f0cd0589fcf3d68cb6b4b2ae599157f385f3daa18667e605c7a149000edf7e/Sometimes...greenhouse-62.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/63809fb5d6a11c8f2df33c12e9b77a70855a780ee287150044905780031ffba5/Sometimes...greenhouse-72.jpg" data-mid="240993674" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/63809fb5d6a11c8f2df33c12e9b77a70855a780ee287150044905780031ffba5/Sometimes...greenhouse-72.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fff39f38a7402b95bfdbc0b454628fbe2318f990e004c271e5f0ab6fafb3508e/Sometimes...greenhouse-69.jpg" data-mid="240993675" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fff39f38a7402b95bfdbc0b454628fbe2318f990e004c271e5f0ab6fafb3508e/Sometimes...greenhouse-69.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c1f043020e4556dfab05ffe9effb869da51050c952876058b4038ecc2c68cd1f/Sometimes...greenhouse-25.jpg" data-mid="240993677" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c1f043020e4556dfab05ffe9effb869da51050c952876058b4038ecc2c68cd1f/Sometimes...greenhouse-25.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0d38f19f36917d5c8937aacb7177f3b72a786b2ed3b3076f63e50fa9c86dd1ad/Greenhouse-weeps_Singapore--2025-67.jpg" data-mid="240993723" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0d38f19f36917d5c8937aacb7177f3b72a786b2ed3b3076f63e50fa9c86dd1ad/Greenhouse-weeps_Singapore--2025-67.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8bc1ce70b1e5bee9e1c324a1d4ea92d611ab50b9e4b5dcc62f1288684fae1c11/Greenhouse-weeps_Singapore--2025-68.jpg" data-mid="240993724" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8bc1ce70b1e5bee9e1c324a1d4ea92d611ab50b9e4b5dcc62f1288684fae1c11/Greenhouse-weeps_Singapore--2025-68.jpg" /> &nbsp; ← Selected images (Oxford Botanical Garden, 2019; Cloud Forests Singapore, 2025) →&nbsp; https://kwanq.cargo.site/Yesterday-s-Rain Sat, 11 Oct 2025 08:20:41 +0000 Kwan Q Li https://kwanq.cargo.site/Yesterday-s-Rain Who Cares about Yesterday's Rain?&nbsp;(2025) Performance Lecture.&nbsp; Presented at the "The Weather In-Between: Monsoons,&nbsp;Markets and OtherDerivative Atmospheres" (link)public gathering at Para Site, Hong Kong, September 2025. ‘Empty Set’, a solo exhibition by Pratchaya Phinthong. Before weather became a planning tool, newspapers reported rain that had already fallen, storms that were already in memory—information that seems utterly useless yet satisfied some deeper need to collectively witness atmospheric events, to transform private weather encounters into shared records. This performance lecture functions as its own form of past weather reporting, excavating the invisible infrastructures designed not merely to predict weather, but to negotiate our collective relationship with atmospheric uncertainty. From the perpetual inadequacy of warning signal mechanisms—too late, too early, never quite right—to the new weather governance prompted by the evolving climate reality, to Hong Kong’s unprecedented decision to keep stock markets trading through typhoons. Each system attempts to bridge the impossible gap between atmospheric chaos and human planning, yet each reveals our persistent vulnerability to forces that exceed all predictions; a restless negotiation in which no infrastructure can fully mediate the encounter between human systems and atmospheric systems. <img width="7008" height="4672" width_o="7008" height_o="4672" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/39da2e0d28656412763bbc36d3376e94e8a9c87d5a72da650dd551ef91006983/Copy-of-DSC08754.JPG" data-mid="239264341" border="0" data-scale="91" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/39da2e0d28656412763bbc36d3376e94e8a9c87d5a72da650dd551ef91006983/Copy-of-DSC08754.JPG" /> <img width="1536" height="2048" width_o="1536" height_o="2048" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/28ca8c4502055d87f29da94739149da9113beff5b5e532d72455af6a7caf8a77/e7a2c291-373c-44f8-b07d-eb8ca8a8fd50.jpg" data-mid="239264476" border="0" data-scale="45" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/28ca8c4502055d87f29da94739149da9113beff5b5e532d72455af6a7caf8a77/e7a2c291-373c-44f8-b07d-eb8ca8a8fd50.jpg" />&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<img width="3000" height="4000" width_o="3000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4b8ff57cef97ee85a088dbb8c8e2b935ad803ef161b14fd268cad477a2a65a6b/be6256c4-9cd3-4f60-89a0-1d6004893b37-2.jpg" data-mid="239264349" border="0" data-scale="45" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4b8ff57cef97ee85a088dbb8c8e2b935ad803ef161b14fd268cad477a2a65a6b/be6256c4-9cd3-4f60-89a0-1d6004893b37-2.jpg" /> ︎︎︎Documentation. Para Site, Hong Kong. 2025.&nbsp;Photo courtesy of Para Site.&nbsp; ↓ 5-min excerpt from the opening and the closing of a 20-min Performance Lecture. https://kwanq.cargo.site/O-Engrave-You-New Sat, 15 Mar 2025 12:49:26 +0000 Kwan Q Li https://kwanq.cargo.site/O-Engrave-You-New O, Engrave You New (2024) Two-channel moving still installation. Performance Lecture.&nbsp; Presented at the British Council’s SPARK FESTIVAL joinly commissioned by Videotage, Film London and G39 Cardiff, Hong Kong, October 2024. The dual-channel snippets document the process of peripheral stem cell transplantation, as the artist’s family member has their blood type coincidentally matched with a last-stage cancer patient. During the process, the donor’s body is connected to a separator, where stem cells are extracted, with remaining blood being returned to the donor. The work’s title recalls the historical case of the Japanese nuclear fuel plant worker Hisashi Ouchi, known as “the world’s most radioactive man”, who was an early recipient of the transplantation in 1999. Ouchi, however, did not survive due to a high amount of radioactivity that ultimately killed the newly planted stem cells. The title also quotes Sonnet 15 of William Shakespeare, in which the poet compared the mortality of humans to plants, and their unavoidable decay with time. The title hints at a layered reading of this medical operation from historical and botanical perspectives: flown, grown, optimised. These relationships were further unpacked in a performance lecture weaving spoken words and projected archival images from multidisciplinary sources, and were jointly presented with artists Zillah Bowes and Roanna Holmes-Frodsham. <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8c4c59589e8f09008467b50ca6347b7bef08728f7f1b2194d23054410e9ec15b/SPARK-documentation.jpg" data-mid="228278797" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8c4c59589e8f09008467b50ca6347b7bef08728f7f1b2194d23054410e9ec15b/SPARK-documentation.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/798188a5756c3b62a1cbcfce3a6a310d2666d664b7dfffac4a1bcf645a68f350/DSC06835-Edit.jpg" data-mid="228278807" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/798188a5756c3b62a1cbcfce3a6a310d2666d664b7dfffac4a1bcf645a68f350/DSC06835-Edit.jpg" /> ︎︎︎Installation shot. Airside Gate 33 Gallery, Hong Kong. 2024. ︎︎︎A 2-minute excerpt of the performance lecture with Zillah Bowes and Roanna Holmes-Frodsham. https://kwanq.cargo.site/Invisible-Nudes Sat, 03 Sep 2022 14:56:25 +0000 Kwan Q Li https://kwanq.cargo.site/Invisible-Nudes Invisible Nudes&nbsp;(2022) Ten moving stills, colour, sound, 20 min., with a life drawing plinth and wooden steps of the MIT Student Art Association from the 1970s, two-channel CRT display, UV films, and laboratory infrastructure and used cleanroom gowns from MIT.Nano lab. Presented at the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize&nbsp;(link) in the Visual Arts Exhibition, May 2022. In the projected video, the artist, disguised as a cleanroom worker in full protective gear complying with Class-100 standards, posed figure modeling gestures in strictly-controlled forbidden areas of the MIT.Nano laboratory: a liberation, a private desire, or a parody? The CRT display revealed a life drawing session hosted by the artist in the machine room of the lab. The session was met with concerns of nudity, which was further complicated by the model’s gender non-conforming identity: what is (not) to be seen? These provocative images probe evolving tension amongst body politics and representations intensified by technological advancements. INFINITE REPLICAS (link) is the project's another iteration. <img width="5812" height="3875" width_o="5812" height_o="3875" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d91d6f1f3ab835768d5b64463b8e7690d30d16c7dabd2c6414aa888b067fc520/DSC09846-Edit.jpg" data-mid="152051065" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d91d6f1f3ab835768d5b64463b8e7690d30d16c7dabd2c6414aa888b067fc520/DSC09846-Edit.jpg" /> <img width="5878" height="3919" width_o="5878" height_o="3919" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0b43204366e7877e369f3b4b8ac1d497fd1d65c60ca6d08e39f2e4c40de6626a/DSC09719-Edit.jpg" data-mid="152051053" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0b43204366e7877e369f3b4b8ac1d497fd1d65c60ca6d08e39f2e4c40de6626a/DSC09719-Edit.jpg" /> <img width="5484" height="3656" width_o="5484" height_o="3656" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1235c80cae09332b41a8fc931f42bf53e4ab2bb9032298e6af5047636d3971f3/DSC09722.jpg" data-mid="152054427" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1235c80cae09332b41a8fc931f42bf53e4ab2bb9032298e6af5047636d3971f3/DSC09722.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5db3ad338205dfcd666f0ff5870187f7a686cd3497e4e21f8e01762065824717/DSC09703.jpg" data-mid="152051225" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5db3ad338205dfcd666f0ff5870187f7a686cd3497e4e21f8e01762065824717/DSC09703.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/701521ebe7d88772bcfbe5a63291f5d5a29d023a1a7444805dcd9f2e79fe1ae0/DSC09666.jpg" data-mid="152051040" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/701521ebe7d88772bcfbe5a63291f5d5a29d023a1a7444805dcd9f2e79fe1ae0/DSC09666.jpg" /> ︎︎︎Installation shot. Wiesner Art Gallery, Cambridge, US. 2022. ︎︎︎An excerpt of the moving stills. <img width="3617" height="2035" width_o="3617" height_o="2035" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a40769ed684d6a887b7e27406e30fdd097c514a9c94f3c22712d5557d83aacf9/camit.00_17_26_12.Still022-2.jpg" data-mid="152054780" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a40769ed684d6a887b7e27406e30fdd097c514a9c94f3c22712d5557d83aacf9/camit.00_17_26_12.Still022-2.jpg" /> <img width="3749" height="2109" width_o="3749" height_o="2109" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d8d76fe25fb07713a0d0c98ece94db938047bfbceea9788f6cb103d5ad2a048d/Sequence-01.00_00_46_19.Still001-2.jpg" data-mid="152054781" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d8d76fe25fb07713a0d0c98ece94db938047bfbceea9788f6cb103d5ad2a048d/Sequence-01.00_00_46_19.Still001-2.jpg" /> <img width="3840" height="2160" width_o="3840" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cb0d597c9f74c3328187d08a17e09fe2a826222b18967ec0ec34d2dfbda212e0/Sequence-01.00_09_42_23.Still004.jpg" data-mid="152054782" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cb0d597c9f74c3328187d08a17e09fe2a826222b18967ec0ec34d2dfbda212e0/Sequence-01.00_09_42_23.Still004.jpg" /> ︎︎︎Screenshots of selected moving stills. ↓ Installation at the MIT.Nano laboratory. <img width="5311" height="3541" width_o="5311" height_o="3541" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/23ac15b321606ba904ef76c3b066b250b913de6dbf37a0fd17edb44ccbba93ea/IMG_9101.jpg" data-mid="234554047" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/23ac15b321606ba904ef76c3b066b250b913de6dbf37a0fd17edb44ccbba93ea/IMG_9101.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/115e4765e31da7335c89aa714d4dce935a3b82e94574d94b903124956d2ace0f/IMG_9087.jpg" data-mid="234554045" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/115e4765e31da7335c89aa714d4dce935a3b82e94574d94b903124956d2ace0f/IMG_9087.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/70d1bef413f0b37144b8adad82b8d83d590c50ed4f4af2283cfba35893f541cb/IMG_9067.jpg" data-mid="234554057" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/70d1bef413f0b37144b8adad82b8d83d590c50ed4f4af2283cfba35893f541cb/IMG_9067.jpg" /> <img width="4500" height="3000" width_o="4500" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9c1373a512e04e525cd738958ecc55fba9760c11f02e64f36cd8fd92668746cd/IMG_9093.jpg" data-mid="234554046" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9c1373a512e04e525cd738958ecc55fba9760c11f02e64f36cd8fd92668746cd/IMG_9093.jpg" /> https://kwanq.cargo.site/Infinite-Replicas Fri, 10 Dec 2021 17:26:12 +0000 Kwan Q Li https://kwanq.cargo.site/Infinite-Replicas Infinite Replicas&nbsp;(2021-23) Single-channel video, HD colour, stereo sound.&nbsp; Two-channel CRT display, flat file cabinet, charcoal and graphite drawings, H40.5"xD26.625"xL30". Support by Council of the Arts at MIT. Shot at MIT.Nano.&nbsp; Documenting the speculation and observation of the scanned, operative, and performative bodies against transparent and infrastructural aesthetics of the national leading nanotechnology laboratory, INFINITE REPLICAS delves into the immense visibility bestowed by new scientific and technological imaging tools and asks, “what is (not) to be seen?” This project probes the dichotomy and yet resonance between art and science by returning to one of their earlier convergences: life drawing, a canon of visual surveying that mirrors, and is constantly conditioned by evolving identity politics, new art discourses and technological advancements. INVISIBLE NUDES (link) is the project's another iteration. <img width="3840" height="2160" width_o="3840" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7a305d8b768d65559be30313992f0319e8d45981686420038ba5afe5cf93573a/C0002.MP4.09_06_09_03.Still002.jpg" data-mid="133072056" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7a305d8b768d65559be30313992f0319e8d45981686420038ba5afe5cf93573a/C0002.MP4.09_06_09_03.Still002.jpg" /> <img width="3378" height="2111" width_o="3378" height_o="2111" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9e827a0820796df2e9f035da5ca0a906681e63a0d5e275c2345cef6488590fcc/C0010.MP4.09_55_03_12.Still003.jpg" data-mid="133072052" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9e827a0820796df2e9f035da5ca0a906681e63a0d5e275c2345cef6488590fcc/C0010.MP4.09_55_03_12.Still003.jpg" /> <img width="3331" height="2082" width_o="3331" height_o="2082" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/514d0edd1249bdc27450a7571ac43ce3f55358ea58b6c9c839d788c163a405e4/Clip0014.MXF.01_35_19_01.Still003.jpg" data-mid="133072053" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/514d0edd1249bdc27450a7571ac43ce3f55358ea58b6c9c839d788c163a405e4/Clip0014.MXF.01_35_19_01.Still003.jpg" /> <img width="2874" height="1612" width_o="2874" height_o="1612" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bacfb6d1dd48e3c5bd41c1b1dad21e183d1d30b94f2c36ed6f176aa677ca128b/KQL_Film-Still_ALGAIIR.png" data-mid="127078725" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bacfb6d1dd48e3c5bd41c1b1dad21e183d1d30b94f2c36ed6f176aa677ca128b/KQL_Film-Still_ALGAIIR.png" /> <img width="3946" height="2220" width_o="3946" height_o="2220" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0b6fa33230a2daa31358f18cfeee04e5496cf2827ae5ebadad5afc9ca3115894/Screenshot-2023-02-15-at-11.53.28-AM.png" data-mid="168466667" border="0" data-scale="46" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0b6fa33230a2daa31358f18cfeee04e5496cf2827ae5ebadad5afc9ca3115894/Screenshot-2023-02-15-at-11.53.28-AM.png" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d11796ed2bdd46fa6232a6621ec914030c2521758c34383d26b6ad1029f61339/replica-film-still_01.jpg" data-mid="127101410" border="0" data-scale="46" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d11796ed2bdd46fa6232a6621ec914030c2521758c34383d26b6ad1029f61339/replica-film-still_01.jpg" /> ︎︎︎Film still. Cast:&nbsp;Mari Kishi, Diana Guo, Sharon Lacey, Tobias Putrih, Meriam Soltan, Nomeda Urbonas. ︎︎︎6-minute screener (2023 edition). <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/749108ddb2560cadfd605a88e82c6df5eb7fc8d2ef62f50088b31d14d3339235/DSC02543r.jpg" data-mid="234554373" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/749108ddb2560cadfd605a88e82c6df5eb7fc8d2ef62f50088b31d14d3339235/DSC02543r.jpg" /> <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/300c3de8b3a262ddb98a7071c0580c175d71c18999b16c67fea0ad1f1581fb99/DSC02540.jpg" data-mid="127195922" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/300c3de8b3a262ddb98a7071c0580c175d71c18999b16c67fea0ad1f1581fb99/DSC02540.jpg" /> <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/db044caeeceef406cbb5306992683e3569d1f4c7615934d644db707d22889d55/DSC02530-Edit.jpg" data-mid="127195924" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/db044caeeceef406cbb5306992683e3569d1f4c7615934d644db707d22889d55/DSC02530-Edit.jpg" /> <img width="3000" height="1688" width_o="3000" height_o="1688" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/39a9d1264958d7c79e180aeebc44047c8922f8fe191f12ab84f2978fc6bd0248/DSC02538-Edit.jpg" data-mid="127102586" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/39a9d1264958d7c79e180aeebc44047c8922f8fe191f12ab84f2978fc6bd0248/DSC02538-Edit.jpg" /> ︎︎︎Installation shot. Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, US. 2021. https://kwanq.cargo.site/Non-arrival-Yet-in-Proximity Sun, 21 Jul 2024 16:18:26 +0000 Kwan Q Li https://kwanq.cargo.site/Non-arrival-Yet-in-Proximity Non-arrival, Yet, in Proximity&nbsp;(2022) 14min Video.&nbsp;(link on request) Single-channel, Colour, Sound. Chromogenic prints, 8”x12”. Director/Editor/Sound/Cinematographer: Kwan Q LI Cast: Srushti Kamat, Jensen Johnson, Meriam Soltan Funded by the Pilot Fund of the ACT Program at MITExhibited at “Here and Elsewhere”, Thesis Exhibition, MIT ACT Gallery, Boston, US. 27 May - 30 Jun, 2022. Three collaborators were invited to temporarily inhabit the space with their evocative objects. They were tasked with prompts related to their cultural gestures without any assigned scripts. This process emphasized improvisation and collaboration, exploring the paradoxical entwinement of pleasure and struggle in this imaginative socio-political neighborhood. The characters’ relational joint, albeit precarious, seems to lie between the positions of strangers and friends. This contingent bonding is neighborly love in passage: a makeshift accompaniment in impermanence. the filming began with a curiosity to pick up the loose thread of discussion on cultural hybridity in the waves of nationalist populism and rising xenophobia. <img width="5453" height="3636" width_o="5453" height_o="3636" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/27bce5bb09c0ecd8b525b9f80d76bc5698cdcb0d91545128e2d1ff0d05d45d2e/DSC00018-Edit.jpg" data-mid="215014616" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/27bce5bb09c0ecd8b525b9f80d76bc5698cdcb0d91545128e2d1ff0d05d45d2e/DSC00018-Edit.jpg" /><img width="3000" height="1000" width_o="3000" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c6d7989a7a545fc231c72d05e39c9d3e83d96349a25892e009b2cb8deb89705b/combined.jpg" data-mid="215015589" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c6d7989a7a545fc231c72d05e39c9d3e83d96349a25892e009b2cb8deb89705b/combined.jpg" /> &nbsp;&nbsp; ︎︎︎Installation view, Thesis Exhibition. research notes (extract):&nbsp; Kobena Mercer delved into the formal position of strangers to dismiss the excessive and unmediated use of “the other” as an empty synonym for cultural differences. Mercer quoted an article of Georg Simmel, which described strangers not as the wanderers who come today and go tomorrow. The stranger is who comes today and stays tomorrow one who stays long enough to synergise nearness and distance. The objectivity of strangers gives rise to new relationships of adjacency, but free of the commitment of friendships is generative position of strangers is what this work perceives as neighbours. “Neighbours” aren’t without baggage. The accent we speak, the food we eat, the way we care about ourselves, the bed-time tales that we are reminiscent of again and again every night. These specificities often are our secret routes to revisit our origin, to what brought us here, resistance or ambition. Nevertheless, these gestures are also the threshold to visit each other’s world. The form of a threshold inherently comprises boundaries. So we learn to be careful. Appropriation is not nice, though approximation is often a way of learning. Increasingly, we are walking on a tangent... <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dd8901db6659a793b661afeb3379d0484aa666fa5950878d5c047cba6ed92820/Clip0056.MXF.01_00_09_22.Still001.jpg" data-mid="215014625" border="0" data-scale="93" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dd8901db6659a793b661afeb3379d0484aa666fa5950878d5c047cba6ed92820/Clip0056.MXF.01_00_09_22.Still001.jpg" /> <img width="3840" height="2160" width_o="3840" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/50e7dc47024a79c8c1eda43b523f2c3649529a66c2128d84ad0545c8dbdb6100/Clip0169.MXF.03_11_31_15.Still001.jpg" data-mid="215014624" border="0" data-scale="93" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/50e7dc47024a79c8c1eda43b523f2c3649529a66c2128d84ad0545c8dbdb6100/Clip0169.MXF.03_11_31_15.Still001.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fd6140cd09ce78bee63421870541fc891e24af2a19ecd572ce9da4cd307d4264/Single-channel.00_06_04_14.Still004.jpg" data-mid="215014623" border="0" data-scale="93" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fd6140cd09ce78bee63421870541fc891e24af2a19ecd572ce9da4cd307d4264/Single-channel.00_06_04_14.Still004.jpg" /> ︎︎︎Film stills.