10 Questions with Jiaoyang Li

Li Jiaoyang is a poet and interdisciplinary artist. She co-founded Accent Accent and the Accent Sisters Bookstore and currently resides in New York and New Jersey. Her literary works have been published in Gulf Coast Journal, Foglifter magazine, 3:AM, The Poetry Review, Life Magazine, Blackbox Manifold, Spittoon Magazine, Los Angeles Book Review-China Channel, Asymptote, Tupelo Quarterly, BIE, Enclave Poetry Journal, Voice and Verse Poetry Journal, China News Weekly, The Paper, Leap, One Line Poetry Journal, Huacheng, and others. Her cross-disciplinary works have been presented at Chashama Gallery, Latitude Gallery, New York Live Art Center, Here Art Center, New Ohio Theatre, Performa Biennial, Immigrant Artists Biennial, Today Art Museum's Technology Art Biennial, Beijing Poetry Festival, Berlin Zebra Poetry Film Festival, International Video Poetry Festival in Greece, Beijing Contemporary Art Center, and Goethe-Institut. She has received grants and support from PEN America, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the British Council, the Breadloaf Conference, and the Cave Canem Foundation. Li Jiaoyang has taught creative writing at New York University, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn Library, and New York Cultural Salon.

www.jiaoyangli-textile.com

INTERVIEW

First of all, tell us a little bit about your background and studies. What kind of education or training helped you develop your approach to art?

I went to a fine art school to study creative writing, which can tell everything that happened to me. Yes, when I was at Goldsmiths College in London, everyone around me was an artist. We read a lot of art theories and go to art openings and performances all the time. So, I initially thought about writing practice as a kind of fine art practice, and I realized that we can always parallel writing with other disciplines. 

As someone who works across various mediums like visual arts and poetry, what common threads do you see between these forms of expression?

In my work, I see both poetry and visual art as vessels for storytelling, with each medium offering its unique way to engage the senses and evoke emotions. They both allow me to explore the intricacies of human experience, serving as mirrors to reflect on our own perceptions and the world around us. The subtlety lies in their ability to transform the mundane into something profound, inviting the audience into a shared space of discovery and introspection. 

Being a multidisciplinary artist, how do you maintain coherence in your work? Are there recurring elements or themes that tie your diverse projects together?

I need to justify that though the format of my work is multidisciplinary, I see my core work as text and writing; sometimes it exists in a puppet show, sometimes it goes with a piano performance, sometimes I tell it in my drag character, sometimes it is a ghost in the online AR installation. It is poetry that transcends different mediums, and that comes down to the underlying themes and messages that I continuously explore. Regardless of the medium, my focus on exploring in-betweenness, fashion, and the transient nature of human experiences acts as a thread that ties most of my projects together. This thematic consistency ensures that each piece, while distinct in form, contributes to a cohesive narrative that spans my entire oeuvre.

What is your aim as an artist? What would you like the public to get away from your work?

I hope to create spaces for reflection and dialogue. I want the public to walk away from my work with a renewed sense of curiosity and empathy, having been challenged to see the world through a different lens. I hope that my work catalyzes personal and collective introspection, inspiring others to question, dream, and imagine beyond their boundaries.

Let's talk about your creative process. Can you guide us through the whole process, from the first idea to the final outcome?

My creative process is inherently fluid, beginning with a spark of inspiration drawn from a vast spectrum of sources—be it personal experiences, historical narratives, or fleeting thoughts. This spark for the Syzygy project, which debuted at the Performa Biennial 2019, originated from a lengthy poem exploring the concept of syzygy in both poetic and psychological contexts. This concept evolved into a performance score for 16 actors aboard the S shuttle train in New York City, each embodying the impact of human activity on nature through metaphorical representations of plastic waste. Collaborating with a sound designer, we interwove a rich auditory landscape featuring Steve Reich's music, T.S. Eliot's poetry, and community oral histories, crafting an immersive experience that juxtaposes urban existence with its environmental footprint. This project epitomizes my approach: allowing ideas to mature across mediums, refined through experimentation and dialogue, culminating in work that resonates deeply with the thematic core intended.

How does your approach to creativity shift depending on the medium you're working with?

The medium I choose significantly influences my creative approach. In poetry, I delve into the rhythm and nuances of language to express complex emotions and ideas, while in visual arts, I focus on the interplay of color, material, and texture, and visual effect to tell a story. Each medium offers its own set of challenges and possibilities, guiding me to explore different facets of the narrative I wish to share.

Ultimately, what specific messages or emotions do you aim to communicate through your artwork?

Recently I have been thinking a lot about the complexity of things, centered around themes of identity and dislocation, the fleeting moments in life. I strive to challenge people's perception of the world. I desire to destroy and damage the understanding which already existed. 

Let's delve into your initiatives, Accent Sisters Bookstore and Accent Society. Could you elaborate on these ventures and their objectives?

With the Accent Sisters Bookstore and the Accent Society, my objective is to foster a sense of community and dialogue through the shared experience of art and literature. These ventures are extensions of my belief in the transformative power of storytelling, aiming to bring diverse voices to the forefront and create a platform for cultural exchange and understanding.

What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?

I'm crafting a TV script in fragments, and I am initially planning to release it on platforms like Xiao Hongshu and TikTok. It explores the lives of Chinese international students in New York, entangled in government corruption and crime, through fictional social media accounts belonging to the characters. The narrative will blend screenshots, texts, and photos, capitalizing on the audience's love for vanity fairs, local drama, short videos, and flash fiction. This project aims to parody these trends while making storytelling more accessible, encouraging a broader audience to engage with real literature over fleeting online content. Anyway, I am eager to have a big audience read real literature instead of trash on the internet.

Are there any upcoming exhibitions, galleries, or publications where audiences can experience your work firsthand?

In May, my research-based poetry/lyric project "Gatsa" and its accompanying album will debut, celebrated with a jam performance party in collaboration with Stilllife. September will see the launch of "Go to Sea," a narrative video game I've developed over two years, on Steam. In November, I'll perform in Chicago with Anne Carson, Robert Currie, and ten members of the Silver Spoon Collective in a theater piece adapted from Carson's new play "Raw Salon." Additionally, I am translating Anne Carson's comic book, "Trojan Women," for Chinese publisher Xin Xingsi.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.