We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christy He. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christy below.

Hi Christy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’d like to share two projects I worked on last year.

A Waterless Boat (2023) is a 6-minute experimental dance film created as the opening video for the annual New Year Poetry Festival in Guangzhou, China. （teaser: https://vimeo.com/992705630）

The creation of this project was a delightful improvisation. During a 1-day shoot, the two modern dancers I collaborated with in Los Angeles, Zhihan Yang and Alve Fu, showcased remarkable performance and mysterious feminine energy through their movements. Our makeup artist Shu incorporated the delicate luster of mother-of-pearl onto the dancers’ faces, creating an oceanic metaphor: the dancers’ faces became the imagery of conch shells. My long-term creative partner, cinematographer Guanting Du, also contributed countless poetic visual concepts, leaving ample negative space around the movements.

Given that this experimental video was intended for a poetry celebration, I drew inspiration from the poems of Sylvia Plath and Coral Bracho, touching on the mysteries of life’s origins, the laws of the universe, seasons, nebulae, and the elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, as well as the Fibonacci golden spiral. The film features a small conch shell that appears in the desert and eventually returns to the water. The conch shell, symbolizing life and fertility, is constantly caressed, held, and passed around by the dancers. Amid the ocean breeze and rocks on the eastern Pacific coast, the dancers, with their agile yet fragile bodies, embody the essence of life alongside nature.

The film was projected onto the exterior of architecture for the audience to view on a summer night. It was a poetic and stream-of-consciousness creative experience, making it particularly special for me.

Scaramazza (2024) was created last autumn. It is a 6-min fashion experimental dance film about the Chinese folk custom of Youshen (”wandering gods”). I was the screenwriter and art director throughout the project. Essentially, I was responsible for distilling cultural symbols on visual and auditory levels and establishing spiritual connections between modern dance and traditional customs.

The film abstracts the centuries-old Chinese deity worship rituals, using modern dance to further explore individual desires and dark sides within religious worship. During the filmmaking process, we traveled to the uninhabited desert areas of northwest China, capturing many primal spectacles. This creative experiment was significant to me as it allowed me, an overseas artist, to return to my homeland for filming post-COVID-19. Despite numerous obstacles, it enabled me to reconnect with the land that nurtured me, establish new connections with its people and things, and open up new perspectives on the collision between ancient traditions and contemporary languages.

This short film participated in the market screening at the Cannes International Film Festival this May and has been collected by the Cannes Short Film Corner.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Christy He, a multimedia artist and director currently residing and working between Los Angeles and Beijing. My artistic practice encompasses a diverse range of mediums, including video, installations, photography, writing, and painting. Over the years, this interdisciplinary approach not only enriches my creative output but also enables me to push the boundaries of artistic expression. With a robust background in the fine arts, my work is characterized by a passionate exploration of the interplay and interconnectivity between different media.

In the commercial realm, I have carved a niche in the fashion and beauty industries, specializing in the creation of visually captivating social media campaigns. My appreciation for aesthetics and narrative storytelling has led to collaborations with various leading brands, including Sisley Paris, Armani Beauty, La Prairie, Hourglass and so on. assisting them in sharing their vision through engaging visual content.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is creating itself.

For me, the creative process—whether it’s in film, photography, or painting—is filled with joy, anxiety, and excitement. I think anyone who creates can relate to it, where everything else seems to fade into the background. Creating is a way of connecting with the world. Through creation, we have the opportunity to express love, fear, or anger and to uncover fresh insights. When necessary, creativity becomes our weapon against injustices, and in those moments, we are immensely grateful for it because it provides us with a loving way to strive for the world we want.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Since I entered the art field at a relatively young age, my peers, friends, and teachers have almost all been artists. It seems we all chose what we love as our profession and work, and it became second nature. I’ve lived in such a world for most of my life, and it wasn’t until much later that I realized this is actually a privilege—many people cannot choose their college major or career path based on their passions. For me personally, practical considerations often take a back seat to artistic creation. This sounds very very unrealistic—I know. I also constantly experience doubt, anxiety, and unease in work and my creative process, and definitely face financial difficulties as well. But all of this is always surpassed by the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment that comes from creating. Just wanted to say it’s a very joyful feeling.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vimeo.com/user47112432
• Instagram: @glass.sansho

Image Credits

All photos by Christy He ([email protected])