(East-West Question) Li Lindi: Embrace all kinds of experiences and reconcile with one's own racial identity
China News Agency, Beijing, April 2nd: Li Lindi: Embrace all kinds of experiences and reconcile with your racial identity
China News Agency reporter Han Chang
In September 2021, the National Gallery of Australia spent 14 million Australian dollars to commission a Chinese-Australian artist, Lindy Lee, to build a stainless steel sculpture, Ouroboros (Ouroboros), which is also the most expensive order in the history of the museum. , which hopes to set a new standard for Australian public art when completed in 2024.
As an influential contemporary artist in Australia, Li Lindi often introduces himself to the outside world as "half Chinese, half Australian".
Growing up at the end of the "White Australia Policy", she was confused about her racial identity.
In the subsequent creative career, she gradually reconciled with her identity. Her Chinese identity and sense of belonging to Australia are not "shackles", but to embrace ten thousand experiences in her life, all of which make her unique.
Li Lindi and her work: "Birth Death" ("Birth and Death"), 2003.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Li Lindi recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Questions" column, analyzing and interpreting her understanding of the identity of overseas Chinese and the integration and mutual learning between different cultures.
In Li Lindi's early growth, confusion and inferiority were the inescapable themes.
This was closely related to the "White Australia Policy" at that time.
At the end of the 19th century, many local whites complained that the arrival of Asian immigrants such as China had reduced the value of labor, and at the same time took anger at Chinese cultural traditions.
In 1901, after the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia, the first Conservative government established the "White Australia Policy" as its basic national policy, allowing only white immigrants to flow in. It was not abolished by the then Labour government until 1973.
In 1954, in the middle and late stages of the "White Australia Policy", Li Lindi was born in Brisbane.
"It was a bad government program that made it almost impossible for Chinese people to enter Australia. Growing up, I remember being very bitter about being Chinese and that was a direct consequence of this policy. .I feel that these ideas are unfair, but in my upbringing, there is nothing against them." Li Lindi said.
Because of my racial identity, "I struggled with issues of identity and belonging for a long time, and when I was younger, whether in Australia or China, I felt very uncomfortable in social situations, I felt Neither place is real to me."
she said.
Fortunately, when Li Lindi was almost 19 years old (1973), "the last vestiges of the White Australia policy were abolished".
This made her, who was in deep confusion, seem to be reborn.
Li Lindi believes that the abolition of the "White Australia Policy" directly promotes the transformation of his self-perception.
"When Australia turned to multiculturalism and embraced its own diversity, it started to give me a wonderful feeling! Let me know that people like me can be recognised and have a legal right in Australian culture, not just being in The fringes of this country. It gave me more confidence to pursue a life that seemed impossible to someone like me: the life of an artist, with a voice of my own.”
In February 2022, a Chinese New Year celebration will be held in Melbourne, Australia. Art groups from all walks of life will perform dragon and lion dances, singing and dancing in the city center and Chinatown. A large number of local people and overseas Chinese are present to watch.
Photo by Wang Xudong issued by China News Agency
Li Lindi, who has just entered adulthood, began to pursue his artistic dream.
At the time, she was the only Asian in an all-white community.
At first, when she saw all the great work from men, she didn't become an artist, she became a high school art teacher.
In 1975, she graduated from Kelvin Grove CAE School and went to London, England.
It was in art museums in Europe that she saw the work of the Italian Baroque woman Artemisia Gentileschi and realized that it was possible and reasonable for a woman to be an artist.
After returning to Australia, Li Lindi, who began to create, drew heavily on reproductions of Renaissance art, especially the work of Artemisia Gentileschi.
Gradually, this led to her further creation, and her works began to be recognized by the outside world.
Changes in the external environment have also changed Li Lindi's heart.
She began to embrace her "dual heritage" of her native China and her upbringing in Australia.
Her visits to China in the early 1990s gave her a better understanding of her mother and grandmother and the stories they went through before she was born.
During this time, she was exposed to Zen culture in Buddhism, which began to influence her artistic creation and helped the artist to accept his "Chinese roots".
In April 2018, overseas Chinese in Australia held a ceremony to worship Xuanyuan Huangdi in Sydney.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Tao Shelan
"For the first 20 years of my life, I didn't realize that I actually hated my Chinese identity. Much of this unseen hatred stemmed from the 'White Australia Policy'. As the policy was repealed, I felt free - that's something I've never felt in the past, and it also allows me to measure the pain I've experienced before, the pervasive racism of this policy is etched in my heart. After that, I started Embrace my Chinese background and be proud of it instead of ashamed," Li Lindi said.
In 1995, who had already made her mark in the Australian art world, she created the extremely colorful installation "No Up, No Down, I Am the Ten Thousand Things" for the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
This is also the first work that reflects Li Lindi's thought.
Behind this work, Li Lindi's profound thinking about his identity is reflected - he is a collection of 10,000 things, not just an individual self.
Li Lindi, who is now a well-known Australian artist, has taught at the Sydney College of the Arts for more than 20 years. In her opinion, the transformation of Chinese and even Asian self-perceptions in Australia is not limited to her.
Li Lindi's sculpture "The Garden of Cloud and Stone", Chinatown, Sydney, Australia, 2017.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
"With the repeal of the 'White Australia Policy', so did many stigmas about racial disparity, an environment that allowed the newest generation of Chinese Australians to grow up in freedom. I especially noticed this because I was in university Having taught a lot of Asian-Australian students, I've noticed that over the generations, they are becoming more comfortable with who they are," she explained.
The reason why many master and doctoral students choose Li Lindi as a mentor is precisely because of her insistence that "diversity and difference are the source of art".
“Many of the students I have taught have issues of race, gender or otherwise. Many find these differences a source of pain, but I used to say that we can take comfort from the fact that we are different because we always have to Seeing things from multiple perspectives. If you want to be an artist, the ability to see things from multiple perspectives is a gift. My students have learned to turn their so-called weaknesses into seeing with a richer, deeper perspective world."
The "White Australia Policy" has been abolished for nearly half a century, and the pursuit of multiculturalism has become a value advertised in Australia.
However, the spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic has made overseas Chinese in Australia once again victims of racial discrimination.
The theme of Li Lindi's Ouroboros (Ouroboros) for the National Gallery of Australia is "tolerance".
"The core of my creation is to explore the deep connection between human beings and the universe," Li Lindi said. "My idea is to make a huge sculpture, which has the concept of inclusiveness and a deep and intimate experience of all things in the universe."
Li Lindi's work "Life of Stars -- The Tenderness of Rain", Zhengzhou Art Center, Henan, China, 2016.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
In recent years, many Chinese avant-garde artists have emerged in Australia and even the Western world.
Talking about this phenomenon, Li Lindi said: "The international art world has changed a lot in the past 50 years. Although the West still has a lot of influence in the art world, artists with diversity and richer colors are on the rise. It is especially worthwhile. One thing to mention is that mainland Chinese artists are gradually gaining a firm foothold on the world stage.”
After more than 20 years teaching at the Sydney College of Art, Lindi and her husband moved to the Byron Bay area of NSW and worked in their bush studio.
In recent years, Li Lindi's exhibitions have continued to make headlines in the Australian contemporary art scene.
In 2018, as part of the Adelaide Biennale, her sculpture "Life of Stars" was placed in the forecourt of the Art Gallery of South Australia for viewing.
In 2020, in recognition of her achievements, the Australian Museum of Contemporary Art presents Lindy Lee's solo retrospective exhibition "Lindy Lee: Moon in a Dew Drop".
Regarding his achievements as a Chinese artist, Li Lindi said frankly that he has always been on the road to meet the unexpected, "One of my earliest Zen teachers once said: Epiphany is an accident. There is no absolute guarantee that epiphany will happen to you. But you have to put yourself on the road to meet the unexpected and work hard every day.”
As for the secret to success, "all I have is I have to go back to my life and put my heart into it".
"Over time, over the decades, I've come to understand that my job is neither to be a 'decent Australian' woman nor to be a 'decent Chinese' woman, I have to stand up and be me Self: It's not an either-or relationship. To be who you really are is to embrace the 10,000 experiences that give you life, all of which make us unique," said Lindi Li.
(over)
Interviewee Profile:
Li Lindi and her sculpture "Secret World of a Starlight Ember", Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, 2020.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Lindy Lee, a well-known Chinese-Australian artist, was born in Brisbane to Chinese immigrant parents.
Working across a range of mediums including painting, sculpture, installation and public art, her work is rooted in Australian and Chinese traditions and develops a creative trajectory that integrates art history, cultural authenticity, individual identity and cosmology.
Representative works include "Moon in a Dew Drop", "No Up, No Down, I Am The Ten Thousand Thing" and "Moonlight Deities", etc. .