J Li Kai
About the Artist
J Li was adopted from Zhaoqing in China when they were 8 months old. They grew up in Toronto, Ontario and attended Etobicoke School of the Arts where they majored in Film studies. They quickly became fascinated with experimental film, multimedia installation and performance art. They experimented with different styles of editing and film techniques while also different mediums and media types. After graduating high school, they attended the U of T program for architectural studies. The following year they transferred to Concordia’s Intermedia Art in 2016. The next 4 years they spent becoming familiar and interested in performance, electronics, and programming. They also were very interested in working with metal and wood and took many design and Computation Art classes. This allowed them an introduction into web coding and 3D modeling classes.
Crédit: J Li Kai, tentative de documentation d’un environnement 3D, 2022.
About the Work
It is my intention to analyze how the adoption industrial complex contributes to the exploitation and commodification of bodies. Technology, being a tool to query and explore (access channels of communication/visibility and databases), can also be a tool that proliferates the operation of large scale exploitation and neo-colonialism. The industry of privatized data and GIS data are surveillance methods which can control and capitalize off marginalized bodies and perpetuate systemic violence.
My project is a built 3D environment combining both GIS data into a 3D world which represents a fragmentation of my experience as an trans racial adoptee. In real time I am wearing 3D printed scans of my body which have installed sensors controlling and manipulating the 3D world.
