YUELIN LI
INFO
Yuelin Li is an artist who creates kinetic sculptures and installations that explore the emotional resonance of objects in motion. Deeply sensitive to the solitude permeating existence, she investigates the fragile, often fleeting nature of connection—between humans and objects, objects and objects, and their overlapping agencies. In her work, movement is not merely a mechanical function but a subtle language, a force that reveals the impermanence and quiet tensions embedded in the material world.By observing how the movements of objects evoke emotional parallels to human experiences, she translates these ephemeral interactions into poetic metaphors—gestures of closeness and distance, holding and letting go.Yuelin’s work does not seek resolution but lingers in the liminal spaces between stillness and motion, connection and dissolution. She embraces contingency and impermanence, allowing objects to unfold in time, revealing their own quiet agency. Through these orchestrated yet unpredictable interactions, she invites viewers to witness silent dialogues that transcend the boundaries of the human—where the movement of an object is not simply mechanical but a fleeting trace of presence, a reflection of change, and a moment of attunement. Yuelin Li is an artist who creates kinetic sculptures and installations that explore the emotional resonance of objects in motion. Deeply sensitive to the solitude permeating existence, she investigates the fragile, often fleeting nature of connection—between humans and objects, objects and objects, and their overlapping agencies. In her work, movement is not merely a mechanical function but a subtle language, a force that reveals the impermanence and quiet tensions embedded in the material world.By observing how the movements of objects evoke emotional parallels to human experiences, she translates these ephemeral interactions into poetic metaphors—gestures of closeness and distance, holding and letting go.Yuelin’s work does not seek resolution but lingers in the liminal spaces between stillness and motion, connection and dissolution. She embraces contingency and impermanence, allowing objects to unfold in time, revealing their own quiet agency. Through these orchestrated yet unpredictable interactions, she invites viewers to witness silent dialogues that transcend the boundaries of the human—where the movement of an object is not simply mechanical but a fleeting trace of presence, a reflection of change, and a moment of attunement. Yuelin Li is an artist who creates kinetic sculptures and installations that explore the emotional resonance of objects in motion. Deeply sensitive to the solitude permeating existence, she investigates the fragile, often fleeting nature of connection—between humans and objects, objects and objects, and their overlapping agencies. In her work, movement is not merely a mechanical function but a subtle language, a force that reveals the impermanence and quiet tensions embedded in the material world.By observing how the movements of objects evoke emotional parallels to human experiences, she translates these ephemeral interactions into poetic metaphors—gestures of closeness and distance, holding and letting go.Yuelin’s work does not seek resolution but lingers in the liminal spaces between stillness and motion, connection and dissolution. She embraces contingency and impermanence, allowing objects to unfold in time, revealing their own quiet agency. Through these orchestrated yet unpredictable interactions, she invites viewers to witness silent dialogues that transcend the boundaries of the human—where the movement of an object is not simply mechanical but a fleeting trace of presence, a reflection of change, and a moment of attunement. Yuelin Li is an artist who creates kinetic sculptures and installations that explore the emotional resonance of objects in motion. Deeply sensitive to the solitude permeating existence, she investigates the fragile, often fleeting nature of connection—between humans and objects, objects and objects, and their overlapping agencies. In her work, movement is not merely a mechanical function but a subtle language, a force that reveals the impermanence and quiet tensions embedded in the material world.By observing how the movements of objects evoke emotional parallels to human experiences, she translates these ephemeral interactions into poetic metaphors—gestures of closeness and distance, holding and letting go.Yuelin’s work does not seek resolution but lingers in the liminal spaces between stillness and motion, connection and dissolution. She embraces contingency and impermanence, allowing objects to unfold in time, revealing their own quiet agency. Through these orchestrated yet unpredictable interactions, she invites viewers to witness silent dialogues that transcend the boundaries of the human—where the movement of an object is not simply mechanical but a fleeting trace of presence, a reflection of change, and a moment of attunement.
© 2025 Yuelin.

See My Absence

See My Absence is a time-based kinetic installation that explores the transience of existence using the transformation of material as a metaphor for time, memory, and disappearance. As ice melts and metal decomposes, the piece invites quiet reflection, evoking emotional resonance as viewers witness the inevitable process of dissolution.

In Progress
Recycled metal, ice, Arduino parts, bathroom caulk
5' 11" × 1' 7.7" × 1' 7.7"

< Movement and interaction without ice face on it
  (prototype for next step)

As the motor orchestrates the ice face’s lateral motion, its movement oscillates between search and hesitation—an automated gesture that unsettles the boundary between mechanism and sentience. The face turns,  aligning with the viewer’s gaze, a brief convergence that dissolves as the ice succumbs to its inevitable phase transition. Ice, a material that exists in flux, underscores the instability of form, its dissolution indexing time’s progression and the fragility of presence. As the structure degrades, the once-defined features blur, melting into formlessness. Droplets descend onto the heated base, their contact triggering an ephemeral vaporization—an audible record of erasure. This interplay between liquefaction and oxidation, between disappearance and residue, positions this work within an ecology of material and temporal collapse. The work does not simply depict loss but enacts it, situating the viewer within the mechanics of impermanence itself.