Ruoyi Shi
Fall Resident 2021
Ruoyi Shi is an interdisciplinary artist working with objects, writings, performances, and video installations. Inspired by folklore, oral history, mythology, and personal memory, she combines humor and fiction to construct her own poetic narratives. Through her practice, Ruoyi plays a world-building game with the figures and creatures she invents. She also invites audiences to participate in her alternative reality.
Ruoyi received her BFA degree in Sculpture from the Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA) in China. She recently completed her MFA in Art at the California Institute of the Arts(CalArts).
"I intend to develop a new character for myself using my time at the Tiny Birch Residency. The natural landscapes seem to be a perfect stage for my practice. I can see the births of many new stories in this special location, as interacting with nature and imaging nature's responses play significant roles in my works. My narratives are based on my own wishful assumptions, while humor would always unexpectedly appear as an outcome from my game with languages and translations. This new character of mine will chase and explore the wildlife around this area, interviewing the land, creatures, or even objects, hiding and searching. The audiences for this performance will not only be human beings or other animals on the farm but also nonliving entities that I cannot predict.
The process will be documented with moving images. I will play with different storytelling methods and experiment with multiple perspectives. Tools that never existed or made sense will be made as well to help my character's exploration, which will be organized into an archival collection when this project comes to an end." - Ruoyi Shi
Three or More Fish
Three or More Fish
Pink Psychic Shop
I Went Down the Stream
Windoat
Han 琀