imagined universes

Mixed Media Illustrations by Li Actuallee

My history as a third culture kid and as a queer artist motivates me to create my own visual and imaginary universes. I am concerned with navigating themes of intimacy, identity and ecology by exploring existing patterns of the world around me. Through subdued colors and descriptive lines, my imaginary universes are equally filled with spontaneity and intricacies.

I find safety in creating alternate realities, where I can heal from past traumas, and bond with the land I create on. Through my drawings I share visions of futures with willing eyes, allowing it to evolve in my mind, finding space for reinterpretation. This imagining is not a rejection of old, but rather a re-envisioning of ancestral wisdom through a contemporary and intersectional viewpoint. As Adrienne Maree Brown says when talking about the infamous Octavia E. Butler’s work: “Science fiction is simply a way to practice the future together. I suspect that is what many of you are up to, practicing futures together, practicing justice together, living into new stories. It is our right and responsibility to create a new world.”

What are the vast ideologies and ethics that will guide these imaginings? How can envisioning bring these better futures into existence?

Through repetition of motifs and patterns, I honor folk traditions as well as my own spiritual journey, as my practice is seeped in deep meditation during the process of creation. The works are modes of regeneration for both the viewer and myself. My process allows me to tackle my identity on my own terms, while simultaneously giving me permission to escape from the weight and confines of these labels. The obsessive repetition of patterns facilitates redefinition and rediscovery of the same form. In addition to mixed media drawings and paintings, my strive toward interdisciplinary practices compels me to dabble in sculpture, performance, video, and more recently animation and augmented reality. Informed by art practices of artists like Louise Bourgeois, Yayoi Kusama, and Julie Mehretu, I display my work in galleries and public spaces via installations and murals.

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Related Pieces

G5A imprint presents its second print edition. This physical magazine is a selection of the work published, digitally, in Volumes 05 to 09. This Edition 2 of the magazine features selected pieces from our digital edition alongside some pieces exclusively for print.

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editor's note

Volume 10

contact | shadow | fringe

I’ve been reflecting on the theme for our tenth volume, a lovely milestone that coincides serendipitously with the warehouse’s tenth year, and how it feels apt for the moment we find ourselves in currently. The theme straddles a threshold. The movement from this side to the far side. It isn’t inherently accompanied by an emotion. And yet, I feel it suggests a sense of hopefulness. 

This isn’t in a vacuum but is influenced by two events that concern themselves with a tremendous threshold: our atmosphere and the expanse beyond it. I am referring to the successful flyby mission around the moon by the Artemis II and the release of the film “Project Hail Mary” (adapted from Andy Weir’s novel of the same name). These two events, coinciding in this manner, serve less as random happenstance and more as a reminder, as Carl Sagan said, “The Cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff.” A reminder that everything out there, is also everything in here. It serves as a reminder for hope that as we resume our exploration of the darkest depths of the universe, we must take that strength to step forward from our own personal shadows.

Shadows can be freeing. There is comfort in creating, expressing, and working without scrutiny or pressure or expectation. It has potential for great freedom, movement, and discovery. However, when the driving force isn’t exploration then it can be crippling and lead to paralysis. In those moments, “coincidental” events like these can be arresting and provide a sense of hope that the next step is all that matters. One step at a time soon becomes many past an imposing threshold. As we gather momentum, pressure is bound to build. It is here, with changed circumstances, that the intention must persevere. Learning the rules, allows the impact of breaking them to feel that much sweeter, but that isn’t necessary. Acting from pure instinct allows for an innate expression to present itself. It is balancing this, instinct versus experience, that proves vital to take experience into one’s stride with child-like instinct and intention.

Our focus, at imprint and G5A, on independent stories allows this freedom. It is something we work to preserve so that the experience of ten volumes and ten years, respectively, does not weigh us down but lifts us up through the shadows and into the expanse. This is not easy but it is simple. When you default to curiosity and wonder, it isn’t a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’.

We’re excited for Volume 10 and everything it will hold.