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Dear Girl
Single channel video-sound
20 min 14 sec
2026
The Warmest Color
Image transfer on metal
45.5 x 88 x 15.5 in
2026
Yi uses painful making processes, such as image transfer, using needles, and other repetitive actions, as a form of self-punishment for being narcissistic in relationships. Through this process, she raises question of what it means to be gay.
At first, Yi believed her work was political, intended to support the legalization of same-sex marriage in China. Eventually, she realized that art became a way to construct a fantasy world for herself to live in. Much like how she treats relationships, everything becomes a container for self-pity.
Currently, Yi is working with repeated passport-style self-portraits on steel plates. A sound work features Yi reading a letter together with the girl addressed in it. Together, the works explore narcissism, reflection, and the unstable boundary between self and other.
Working across photography, installation, and writing, Yi’s practice centers on intimacy, mirroring, and the unstable boundary between self and other. Through repetition, reflection, and autobiographical gestures, she examines how identity is constructed through projection, identification, and transference.
She is currently an MFA candidate in Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design.