"The Virtual life"

by Clover Li

This piece is created during staying in when all of a sudden I was struck by the fact that our life is so deeply rooted in the digital world. Every day the first thing I do is turn on my phone to check out the news feeds, and turn on my computer to put on anything I need to work on. And of course, there is online shopping, checking emails, and all that. Covid has changed our life completely, it has stirred human life to an even more virtual direction. You could almost live a solid life with this magical machine and wifi.

Then I started having this vision of a plant that is rooted in the sea, and its roots consisted of chips and wires. The plant represents life here, whereas the sea could represent our consciousness and the sea of information.  Like every leaf on a plant is different, everyone’s relationship to the internet is as diverse. I used the leaves as showrooms to present how everyone is connected to the internet, or not connected at all. I presented a few of the common activities people are vigorously engaged with on the Internet. Some create sparkles in people’s lives, some create addictions that are hard to get off. My feelings towards this reality are rather psychedelic, that is why I picked those colors for the sky. 20 years ago, I who only used digital equipment for 2 hours a day would have not imagined working with them for a whole day every day. I love the convenience and the rich content it’s providing, but also feels impossible to get off its net.

As an artist who constantly gets inspiration from nature, animals, cross-culture, and pretty much everything in life, I also like drafting with random thoughts in my head that I find interesting. Then I will mix in the elements I love in the final draft. I work mostly digitally, but I love playing with traditional mediums for their textures. So you will usually find multiple textures in my art.

Hope you enjoy this piece, and I humbly invite you to take a look at my other work on my website! Feel free to say hi! Have a wonderful day!

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