Li LinLin

Everyone has their own youth. During this most changeable and sensitive period of life, we all write our own stories of adolescence. I remember that in middle school I was an introverted girl who often liked to lock myself in a small room, doing the things I enjoyed in a space that belonged only to me. These memories became the driving force for creating this series, because “they” are enclosed “selves,” each disconnected from—and even opposed to—societal systems. Viewed from the front, the “classroom” is always neat, orderly, and standardized; but from the back, the “classroom” becomes a “self-world” that refuses to communicate with the institutional society. In this work, I attempt to recreate the youth of our generation while also dissecting the multiplicity of my own character.

Another work, “Old World,” was inspired by repeated terrorist attacks in Europe. The piano in the piece represents rationality and a stable social structure, while the monkey symbolizes human wildness and destructive impulses. In today’s turbulent and uncertain era, violence—an innate aspect of human nature—is becoming increasingly apparent. Hatred spreads to every corner of the world, and far-right and xenophobic ideologies are gaining prevalence in many countries. Perhaps the world is at a turning point. The “old world,” like this piano, is precarious, and people are moving toward the future in fear.