Yiming Si
Rest
Afternoon Light
Leaf
What's The Meaning of Life
Shirt
Untitled
Artist Bio
I am a San Francisco based art student originally from Beijing, China. My projects, Pinklemonade, unErased, and Lingering Vestige will be presented in the book form. They are mainly about photography and poetry. Recently, I attempted to introduce performance more into my works as depictions of intimacy including my perspective of devotion of time in relations. The flexibility of photography, the instant way of producing images given by the cameras, helps me through my practices. The subtlety of emotions flowing through the images in both of my projects concretes non-linear narratives of my perception of intimacy and reconciliation between the sense of loss and existence.
Artist Statement
I took photos intuitively and investigated them afterwards, categorizing and sequencing, color grading and printing. I look intensively into the casual objects and intentionally want to achieve the consciously casual, and try to turn those trifles into the container of my sentiments.The muted tones of color which considered the essentials of my photography that embodies the coherence of tenderness in Pinklemonade. The consistency of mediums in my projects could be found in rice paper printed with my poem, Polaroid and wax as I treasure their vulnerability and perishableness. The intangible materials solidify my sentiments while retaining the transparency and delicateness in them.
The question strikes me repeatedly as why do I make more images since there are already so many of them, though most of them will lie in the hard drives or clouds and eventually become some digital dust. That’s also the main reason why I primarily work with film photography, despite the challenges from the ubiquity of the digital world that film photography is confronted with. I have more time to think before exposing the film and that makes every shot count. Large format cameras and chromatic films provide the best resolution and exquisite colors which renders me the best quality, biggest size and most detailed prints I can achieve. To some extent, the technique is my resistance to the digital world and reinforces my genuine enthusiasm for the existing world.