Li Lin-Liang

Wandering (Together / Alone--Under Suburban Sky )

Archival pigment print

"Together / Alone-Under Suburban Sky is intrinsically tied to my experience moving to the U.S. at the age of 40 from Shanghai, China. Life is drama. For this project, I dressed up as an ordinary suburban housewife to show scenes of daily life. I made some images like film footage by using long exposures and 16:9 ratio.

For the past few years, this project has been the primary source material in creating a body of work that explores the migrant narrative and my suburban housewife experience, albeit through a personal lens. Photography is an effective way to depict real scenes in life and can challenge norms of female sexuality, beauty, domesticity, and identity.

The suburban life is very peaceful. It represents a middle-class lifestyle, with a comfortable house, two or three kids, and a hardworking husband. They are living together; however, she feels lonely. In Betty Friedan’s words, the problem has no name."

– Li Lin-Liang

About the artist

Li Lin-Liang

Li Lin-Liang is a photographer trained as a filmmaker at the Beijing Film Academy. She holds a PhD in film history and theory from Beijing Film Academy and MFA at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Previously, she worked as an associate professor at the Shanghai Theater Academy. As a co-screenwriter and script supervisor, she has released three films in China. She is currently working for the Shanghai International Film Festival as a selection jury member.

Li Lin-Liang has published two books on Chinese film history and film reviews. Her photography works have been shown in New York City as well as Hudson Valley, New York galleries. Her work uses composites cinematic realities that capture the way we process memories and time, and her works have always touched upon universal themes, with the potential to start a dialogue about cultural diversity and universal similarities.