Fleeting Glances, Frozen Moments: How Joanna Li Captures the Essence of a Life Remembered.

Joanna Li, REMINISCENCE, 2021

Joanna Li is a Taipei-born artist based in London. Her art explores the themes of memory, identity, and often human experiences in the digital era. Her work spans multiple mediums, including photography, painting, video, and immersive technologies like AR and VR. Through these diverse formats, she reflects on how personal and collective experiences shape the way we see ourselves and the world.

Li’s latest work, REMINISCENCE, was featured at Rituals - Anima Mundi 2024 held at the Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello Art Gallery under the curation of Luca Curci, as well as at the Ciclos Exhibition at Artly Mix, curated by Juliana Lauletta. Through this piece, Li explores the themes of memory, loss, and the evolving significance of memories over time. The short video portrays a young dancing woman, accompanied by narration from her older self, capturing a bittersweet reflection on memory, time, and presence—drawing inspiration from her grandmother’s story. Over time, the artist observed how her grandmother's retelling of a difficult choice evolved from regret to an appreciation of its impact on her family. This shift became a metaphor in REMINISCENCE for how we reinterpret our past with age and experience, illustrating the work's central message that our memories continuously transform as we view them through a present lens.

In the video, the camera follows the girl dancing in a winter landscape. Her red hair starks against the pale, almost ethereal surroundings. The visual contrast between the warmth of her presence and the coldness of her environment underscores how the narrator places herself at the heart of her own memories. The girl's world feels untouched by modern-day concerns; her struggles are uniquely her own—routines, choices, mistakes, and worries. Each carries weight yet remains at a gentle distance. The soundtrack enhances the reflective atmosphere, imbuing the scenes with nostalgia as if reliving a cherished memory.

The video captures that fleeting moment when, without realising it, you're drawn into your memories. The physicality of those memories feels almost as tangible as the cup in your hand, the book you're engrossed in on the subway, or your fingers resting on a keyboard while gazing out a window. Then, suddenly, you snap back to the present, only realising afterwards that you had drifted away. This return from memory is mirrored in the video when the girl glances back at the viewer at the end, subtly breaking the fourth wall and fostering a shared experience. It's at this moment that the vividness of those memories begins to fade—the memories, the present, the warmth of the tea, the motion of the train, the sun outside the window—all passing by, one after the other. The girl’s gaze is both inviting and introspective, prompting a reflection on our memories and the emotions they hold.

The Lonely Walk short video is the opposite of the emotions REMINISCENCE evokes. There are no memories, past, presence or future. There is only a soulless city —a labyrinth of forms and shapes that embodies a coldness and emptiness that is almost palpable. This sensation reflects the experience of many people navigating city life. They move through vast, empty spaces in which they exist rather than genuinely live—lacking the ability to breathe, love, laugh, or fully experience life.

The steady, deliberate movements of the camera evoke a feeling of quiet resignation, creating an atmosphere of melancholy and detachment. The visuals are devoid of vibrant colours, casting a bleak tone over the architecture. As the camera glides through the city’s darkness in which buildings appear not as functional structures but as hollow, geometric shapes—detached from their purpose, seemingly floating without meaning or context.

In the soundtrack, the softly repeated phrase "No one really knows me at all" serves as the lone human touch in the video. Yet, it feels more like a distant echo reverberating off cold, impersonal surfaces—lost within the city's indifferent maze.

Joanna Li's art often reflects the isolating routine of modern life–an unbroken string of monotonous moments. Inspired by Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), which captures emotional disconnection in a foreign city, and Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (1972), with its surreal, metaphorical urban landscapes, Li uses urban spaces to symbolise isolation and the pressures of society.

In REMINISCENCE, Li captures the delicate tension between memory and presence, immersing us in a poetic winter landscape that echoes nostalgia and acceptance. This reflection on memory acknowledges the flow of time while celebrating the beauty of the present. In contrast, The Lonely Walk portrays a stark, unfeeling urban landscape, embodying the alienation often felt within modern cities. These contrasting works highlight the richness of personal memory alongside the emptiness of a disconnected existence, revealing Li's focus on exploring life's intricacies and our place within an ever-changing world.