We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ruoyi Shi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ruoyi, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

Creating brings me great joy as I can sense flowing energy in my body, leading me to different possibilities and adventures. The unknown and the unreached stimulate my curiosity and keep calling me to reflect and explore. I often feel fortunate to be able to work creatively, both as an artist and through collaborations with other artists. Since I was young, my mom has always encouraged me to forge a distinct path, different from her own. “I don’t want you to live the same life as mine,” she would often emphasize, as she worked behind a desk all day and never enjoyed her job.

From my perspective, it is a privilege for me to pursue art and consider myself an artist, as the education and resources I got to experience might not be accessible to many others. I am able to dream and create only because of the foundation other people have established and provided.

I once thought I would be suitable for a regular job as I am grounded, responsible, and even rigid in some people’s eyes. However, it is hard for me not to question or challenge others, and deep inside, I might be too chaotic as a cooperative member of teamwork. It would also be hard for me not to take it as a long-term performance as an office worker, making projects criticizing reality and capitalism.

Ruoyi, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am an interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. My works are fragments I collected to create an alternative reality. In this never-ending world-building game that mirrors past, present, and future, I invent figures, tools, myths, and memories. Using sculptures, writings, performances, and videos, I aim to experiment with the boundaries between nature and artificial existences, truth and truth-making.

Inspired by ancient tales and rituals related to language, habits, or means of rules, I like to recreate the fairytale-like beliefs with care and an innocent attitude — I reenacted the deleted story of the “talking fish” from the first Chinese peasant revolt and kept traditional burial ceramic figurines in my mouth to measure the weight of secret and wealth; I explore the possibilities to expand the rules of regulating preciseness and challenge the translation between different measurement systems. My intention is to discuss how information is carried, manipulated, interpreted, and transformed.

My practices are rooted in my culture and traditions. The shift in meaning during the process of language translation reflects my experience as an alienated figure living in a foreign environment. I am curious about how people are encouraged to appropriate the information they encounter and how our vocabulary is chosen and formed in today’s society. I examine the true intention behind each movement while finding connections among regional practices across different cultures.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

As an international artist, the visa problem is a huge difficulty that all my foreign artist friends must conquer. We all struggle to stay here and find a sustainable way to support our art practices, as there are so many restrictions and limitations for foreigners, and we can never find a true stable way of living.

We trap in a continuing loop of self-proving, paperwork, and waiting, never knowing when it will end and whether we will receive a happy ending or need to pack and leave. This shadow hovers over all of us, and I hope to find a solution or a safe exit.

I hope society can provide more support, understanding, and opportunities for artists who share a similar situation to me. I waited for the entire 12 months for my visa result, and at the same time, I was not allowed to be paid during my stay in the US. I hope we can form a larger support group and teach each other how to deal with problems like this. I hope people who don’t need to face this challenge can stop, listen to our stories, and show support.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, rediscovering old stories, making new adventures, and finding friends with similar responses and intentions are some of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist. It is important for me to see regular life through another lens and play with perspectives and narratives. The old and the new reflect each other, bringing up questions and predictions. I am eager to participate in the process of archiving past experiences and experimenting with the latest inventions.

Artists are extremely lucky to have the freedom of interpretation and expression. Seeing my ideas turn into other people’s reality is truly rewarding. I hope to share my knowledge and experiences with others, and I want to see more people from the younger generations have access to art education and be able to have fun with art.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shiruoyi.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ruoyishi/

Image Credits
Image Ruoyi_9 is taken by Hannah Patterson