Research Proposal_Zeyu Li

My approach unfolded in my practices is employing embodied knowledge to investigate the relationship between individuals and communities, and the connection between humans and the eco-environment. In the context of global industrialisation, the Global South is catching up with the Global North at the expense of squeezing the living space of the ethnically minor groups. This impact has led to a disconnection between the human body and nature. I will look at this disconnection through bodily perception and expression in my upcoming MA study. Firstly, my art practices seek to restore the bond between the bodies of minor ethnics and nature by employing performance art as a means. Secondly, this revitalised connection will be my means to react against the exploitation experienced by the ethnically minor groups and the eco-environment they relied on.

My research focus stems from the socio-political issue that Japanese government has discharged radioactive nuclear waste into Pacific Ocean, with plans to continue this for the next 30 years. Looking at the endangered sea creatures with potential death or mutations, my project "Mutated Creatures" criticises the release of nuclear waste into the sea that disrupts the delicate balance between humans, organisms, and the ocean. I employ my body to perceive the tensions, to gather information, and then adopt the Midjourney program to reveal the alienated creatures and their perspectives toward the Anthropocene. The ethnically minor groups which relied on the Pacific Ocean have been forced to abandon their homes. My project "The Danjia Village and Its Dwellers of the Sea" investigate the Danjia boat-dwelling fishermen who have to leave their boathouses and alter their lifestyle to the land-dwelling, as the nuclear contamination reaches soon. Through participatory observation, I have worked and lived with Danjia fishermen for a week; through a photographic diary, I have documented their physical adaptation to the sea and their everyday negotiations with the eco-environment; through bodily interactions with the sea and fishermen, my body has grasped memory and techniques enabling myself reach physical and emotional balance for inhabiting at sea.

Employing my body as an artistic means is elaborated further in my projects, "36.5℃" and "A long exposure." If bodily perception and collaboration are the essence of the former two projects, bodily expression as the core of the latter two.

Through "36.5℃," I have explored how the human body perceives, retains, and conveys emotions, and adopted performance art to document the emotional connection between the subjects and myself; while in the "A long exposure" project, the process of flying the kite marked my emotional reconciliation with the 'other.'

In my MA study, I aim to further explore the intricate relationship between humans and nature, employing photography and performance art. I intend to utilise my body as a means to document the physical encounters of boat-dwelling fishermen within the marine environment and to collaborate with them in choreographing a performance art collectively as my study outcome. The performance art is relevant in my research-based practices as it enables me with the opportunity to capture experiential and embodied modes of knowing and a holistic insight towards the ongoing socio-political issues.