Dinu Li

Li was born in 1965,{{Citation

| last1 = Keen

| first1 = Melanie

| last2 = Day

| first2 = Eileen

| title = Necessary Journeys

| place = London, United Kingdom

| publisher = Arts Council England with Black World

| year = 2005

| isbn = 0-7287-1112-5}} moving with his parents from Hong Kong to England, first to Sheffield and then to Manchester.{{cite book

| last = Li

| first = Dinu

| title = Family Village

| publisher = The Arts Institute at Bournemouth

| date = 2009

| location = Bournemouth, UK

| url =https://store.aub.ac.uk/product-catalogue/the-gallery/the-gallery/family-village

| isbn = 978-0-901196-34-7}} Weekly school trips to the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, sparked his interest in historical paintings, especially Vermeer and influences his work to this day.{{cite web

| url = http://www.enemiesofgoodart.org/dinu-li-podcast-available/

| title = Artist Dinu Li podcast

| publisher = Enemies Of Good Art

| access-date = 2020-02-29

| quote = }}

His interest in photography dates back to childhood hours spent re-arranging and fictionalising family photographs on his mother's dressing table. In his twenties he was inspired by Exiles by Josef Koudelka and In Flagrante by Chris Killip.

His process typically involves travelling to a destination to develop a project, researching its history and other relevant information. This research becomes an element within the piece, generating new perceptions by creating patterns, repetitions, and compositions.

{{Update|part=section|date=April 2024}}

Migrations, the representation of people who normally avoid identification, and the untrustworthiness of human and photographic memory, are some of Li's ongoing themes.

Translations, the re-presentation of texts, graphic images, architecture, film and photography, and the staging of conflicting interpretations of events, are typical techniques.

In his series of fourteen portraits Press The Star, Then Say Hello (2006) {{Citation

| last = Buchler

| first = Pavel

| title = Press The Star, Then Say Hello: Calling Home

| journal = Portfolio: Contemporary Photography in Britain

| issue = 46

| pages =

| year = 2007}} Li photographed customers of high-street internet booths in Manchester as they phoned 'home' abroad, their bodies in one space and their minds elsewhere.{{cite web

| url = http://www.indrakhanna.com/autograph.html

| title = Autograph ABP

| last = Khanna

| first = Indra

| access-date = 2020-02-29

| quote = }} For his photobook The Mother of All Journeys (2003–2007), Li travelled with his elderly mother back to all her previous homes, in the UK, Hong Kong, and rural China, reflecting on the part photography plays in the construction of personal memory.{{cite book

| title = Mother of all Journeys

| publisher = Dewi Lewis Publishing

| date = 2007

| location = Stockport, United Kingdom

| isbn = 978-1-904587-41-5}}

In his photographic series Secret Shadows (2002) Li created 'portraits' of illegal migrants working in London's Chinese restaurant trade, through images of their possessions and living quarters.{{cite web

| url = https://www.photofusion.org/exhibitions/ten-thousand-li/

| title = Ten Thousand Li

| date = 2003

| publisher = Photofusion

| access-date = 2020-02-29

| quote = }} In We Write Our Own History (2017) he collaborated with political activists unable to safely reveal their identities, who restaged their unofficial, alternative memories of the 2014 Umbrella protests by arranging everyday items on table tops.{{Citation

| last1 = Maude-Roxby

| first1 =Alice

| author-link =Alice Maude-Roxby

| last2 = Li

| first2 = Dinu

| author2-link =

| title = The Performance Document: Assimilations of Gesture and Genre

| journal = Photography and Culture

| volume = 11

| issue = 2

| pages = 197–209

| date = 2018-06-08

| url = https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17514517.2018.1467088

| issn= 1751-4517

| doi = 10.1080/17514517.2018.1467088| s2cid =158254651

| url-access = subscription

}}

The Anatomy of Place (2007–2017) is a trilogy of films consisting of Ancestral Nation, 2007, Family Village, 2009, and Nation Family, 2017, three alternative translations of the Chinese written word 'country'.

File:Video still of film "Nation Family" by artist Dinu Li, 2017.jpg The animation Family Village was inspired by a newspaper article about a Sichuan town built in the style of Dorchester, England, an architectural translation from one vernacular to another. Li sourced a 1950s cartoon story book about a heroic Communist boy who intercepted enemy soldiers, creating an altered narrative overlaid with children chanting the song Pure Imagination from the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in Mandarin.{{cite web

| url = http://artradarjournal.com/2009/10/07/va-museum-commissioned-photography-show-the-mother-of-all-journeys-lands-in-hong-kong-interview-dinu-li/

| title = V+A museum-commissioned photography show The Mother of All Journeys lands in Hong Kong – interview Dinu Li

| date = 2009-10-07

| publisher = Art Radar

| access-date = 2020-02-29

| quote = }} In Nation Family, Li constructed a fictional narrative inspired by an actual relative's time working in a Cultural Revolution labour camp. Li shows family photographs that are in fact propaganda, and he manipulates and translates film, props and songs into different media or visual languages.{{cite web

| url = https://www.dinuli.com/Peter-Ainsworth

| title = The Seductive Avoidance of Cause and Effect: Dinu Li's Film Trilogy, The Anatomy of Place (2007–2017)

| last = Ainsworth

| first = Peter

| publisher = Dinu Li

| access-date = 2020-02-29

| quote = }}

• {{cite book

| last = Li

| first = Dinu

| title = Family Village

| publisher = The Arts Institute at Bournemouth

| date = 2009

| location = Bournemouth, UK

| url =https://store.aub.ac.uk/product-catalogue/the-gallery/the-gallery/family-village

| isbn = 978-0-901196-34-7}}.

• {{cite book

| last = Kwok

| first = Ying

| title = 21: Discussions with Artists of Chinese descent in the UK

| publisher = Chinese Arts Centre

| date = 2008

| location = Manchester, United Kingdom

| isbn = 978-0-9545440-4-1}}.

• {{cite book

| last = Li

| first= Dinu

| title = Mother of all Journeys

| publisher = Dewi Lewis Publishing

| date = 2007

| location = Stockport, United Kingdom

| url=https://www.dewilewis.com/products/the-mother-of-all-journeys

| isbn = 978-1-904587-41-5}}.

• {{Citation

| last1 = Keen

| first1 = Melanie

| last2 = Day

| first2 = Eileen

| title = Necessary Journeys

| place = London, United Kingdom

| publisher = Arts Council England with Black World

| year = 2005

| isbn = 0-7287-1112-5}}.

• {{cite book

| title = The Chinese Art Book

| publisher = Phiadon

| date = 2003

| location = London

| isbn = 978-0-7148-6575-1}}.

• {{cite book

| last1 = Grennan

| first1 = Simon

| last2 = Li

| first2 = Dinu

| title = As If I Were a River & Immaculate Drowning : Photography & Video Installation

| publisher = Commissions in the Environment

| date = 2003-07-27

| location = Manchester, United Kingdom

| isbn = 978-0-9545297-0-3}}.

• {{cite book

| title = Ten Thousand Li – Chinese Infusion in Contemporary British Culture

| publisher = Centre for Art International Research

| date = 2002

| location = Liverpool, United Kingdom

| isbn = 0-9523161-9-6}}.

• {{cite book

| last = Li

| first= Dinu

| title = Bohemia

| publisher = Viewpoint Photography Gallery

| date = 1997

| location = Manchester, United Kingdom

| isbn = 0-9523161-9-6}}.

He has had solo exhibitions across the UK, including The Anatomy of Place, London, 2018, Age of Transition, Bedford, 2005,{{cite web

| url = http://bedfordcreativearts.org.uk/projects/7861/

| title = Age of Transition

| publisher = Bedford Creative Arts

| access-date = 2020-02-29

| quote = }} As If I were a River, Manchester, 2005{{cite web

| url = https://www.dinuli.com/Info

| title = Dinu Li – Info

| publisher = Dinu Li

| access-date = 2020-02-29

| quote = }} and Treasured Island, An Tobar, The Isle of Mull, 2001. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, Italy, 2009Galerie Christian Roellin [http://www.christianroellin.com/dinu-li/about-the-artist/]; retrieved 2018. the 3rd Bucharest Biennale, Romania; Contact FotoFest 05, Canada; The Map: Navigating the Present{{Cite web|url=http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/pressreleases/the-map-navigating-the-present-paa-bildmuseet-i-umeaa-246262|title = THE MAP: NAVIGATING THE PRESENT på Bildmuseet i Umeå}}, Bildmuseet, Sweden, 2008; Contemporary Chinese Photography, Oldenburger Kunstverein, Germany, 2010; PhotoIreland, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland, 2012; Family Stories, White Space 798, China, 2004; The Mother of All Journeys, Victoria and Albert Museum, UK, 2009; The Map: Navigating the Present, Konsthall C, Sweden, 2009; The Problem of Asia, Para/Site Art Space HK at Chalk Horse, Australia, 2010; Liminal Britain, San Antonio Art Gallery, USA, 2006; Tashkent Biennale 2007, Uzbekistan; and the Dong Gang International Photography Festival, Korea, 2015. Li has also curated exhibitions including Make it a Better Place at the Holden Gallery, Manchester, in 2007,{{cite web

| url = https://www.holdengallery.mmu.ac.uk/2007/makeitabetterplace/

| title = EXHIBITIONS – Make it a Better Place – 12.04.07 – 27.04.07

| publisher = The Holden Gallery

| access-date = 2020-02-29

| quote = }} and the touring exhibition Home, 2004 with the Chinese Arts Centre.{{cite web

| url = http://archive.cfcca.org.uk/index.php/Detail/occurrences/169

| title = Touring Exhibition: 'Home', Various artists (2004 Jan 16 – Feb 22)

| publisher = Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art

| access-date = 2020-02-29

| quote = }}

{{Reflist}}

• {{official website|www.dinuli.com}}
• [http://www.enemiesofgoodart.org/dinu-li-podcast-available/ Dinu Li discusses his work for Enemies of Good Art podcast]
• [http://artradarjournal.com/2009/10/07/va-museum-commissioned-photography-show-the-mother-of-all-journeys-lands-in-hong-kong-interview-dinu-li/ Interview with Wendy Ma for Art Radar Journal]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAgNvSFTd0Q WYNG Award interview about The Mother of All Journeys]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwcUsIh5ECs WYNG Award interview about artistic practice]
• [http://www.daniellearnaud.com/artists/artists-li.html Danielle Arnaud Gallery Artist Profile]
• [https://iedphotography.com/videos/dinu-li-workshop-european-master-fine-art-photography-ied-madrid/ European Master of Contemporary Photography of IED Madrid workshop video]
• [http://archive.cfcca.org.uk/index.php/Detail/entities/53 Profile on the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art Archive & Library Catalogue]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Dinu}}

Category:1965 births

Category:Living people

Category:Artists from Manchester

Category:Artists from Sheffield

Category:Hong Kong photographers

Category:Hong Kong emigrants to England

Category:British video artists

Category:British contemporary artists

Category:Alumni of Liverpool John Moores University

Category:20th-century British photographers

Category:21st-century British photographers

Category:British multimedia artists