LI YAOZE

Her work explores the marginal role of animals in industrial society through the shifting dynamics of gaze and counter-gaze. Animals are not merely passive subjects—they return our look, quietly and insistently. Her practice unfolds as a study of posture and position, gently testing boundaries and systems of observation through subtle gestures embedded in the everyday. 
他的作品通过凝视与反凝视不断变化的动态，探讨了动物在工业社会中所扮演的边缘角色。动物不仅仅是被动的对象——它们以一种静默而坚定的方式回馈我们的注视。他的创作实践是对姿态与位置的探索，通过日常中蕴含的细微举止，温和地试探着界限和观察体系。

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Email:liyaoze9@gmail.com
Instagram:albertoyaoze

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LI YAOZE
Li YaoZe delves into the nuanced relationship between humans and animals, focusing on themes of gaze, observation, and the boundaries of survival in an industrialized society. His work examines how animals are both subjected to and objectified by human gaze, questioning how their roles are constructed and controlled within the context of modern civilization. By exploring the dynamics of who is watching, and who is being watched, Li critiques the ways in which industrial society shapes and limits our perception of non-human life.

Through his use of diverse materials such as fur, bones, and skin, Li transforms organic remnants into works that evoke both fragility and power. These materials, extracted from the natural world, challenge perceptions of life, death, and the entangled existence of all living beings. His pieces ask the viewer to reconsider not only the lives of animals but also how human intervention defines and distorts their presence in our world.

李曜泽深入探讨了人与动物之间微妙的关系，聚焦于凝视、观察以及工业化社会中生存边界的主题。他的作品考察了动物如何既承受着人类的注视，又在这一注视中被物化，从而质疑它们在现代文明语境下角色的构建和控制。通过探讨“谁在观察”与“谁被观察”的动态关系，李曜泽批判了工业社会塑造和限制我们对非人类生命认知的方式。

通过使用毛皮、骨头和皮肤等多样化材料，李曜泽将有机遗留物转化为既展现脆弱感又散发力量的艺术作品。这些取自自然界的材料挑战了我们对生命、死亡以及所有生物纠缠共存的传统认知。他的作品不仅要求观者重新审视动物的生命状态，还促使人们反思人类干预如何定义与扭曲了它们在我们世界中的存在

 
Work 2021-2025

2023/2024
1..“They”
2.“Do Not Climb”
3.“About footprints”

2021/2022
1.“ Look at Each Other”
2.“ The man in the mask”




Email：liyaoze9@gmail.com
Instagram：albertoyaoze

Work 1 
“They“
  2021
LI  YAOZE

It is a sculptural installation composed of sheepskin, deerskin, foam cloth, and resin—materials that retain an organic warmth, soft to the touch, yet haunted by the memory of once-living bodies. The artist deliberately preserves their tactile immediacy, allowing viewers to encounter a quiet proximity between human and non-human forms through both gaze and sensation.

Each form seems to grow upward from the ground, slowly, deliberately, like a presence emerging into time. None are alike—some slouch, some stretch, some twist like strained torsos, others curl like sleeping organisms. Their surfaces are unpolished, raw, retaining the textures of skin and fur, conjuring associations with organs, fossils, or unknown lifeforms. They refuse clear categorization, existing somewhere between animal and object, body and terrain, familiar and alien.

It does not seek to represent specific creatures, but rather to embody the residual, the sensorial, the unresolved. These entities stand in silence, offering no narrative, yet radiating a powerful presence. The viewer, while looking upon them, becomes aware of being watched in return—not by a subject with eyes, but by a presence that resists objectification.

This is a quiet meditation on coexistence, estrangement, and the limits of recognition. It is not a specimen, nor a symbol, but a field of otherness that murmurs between the act of viewing and the impossibility of fully knowing.

这是一组雕塑装置，由羊皮、鹿皮、泡沫布和树脂构成——这些材料保留着天然的温暖，触感柔软，却又萦绕着曾经有生命体的记忆。艺术家刻意保留了它们的触觉即时性，让观者通过凝视与感受体验到人类与非人类形态之间那种静谧的亲近。

每一种形态仿佛都在缓缓地从地面生长而出，如同一种存在在时光中悄然显现。它们各不相同——有的慵懒地伏下，有的伸展开来，有的扭曲得像紧绷的躯体，还有的蜷缩得犹如沉睡的生物。它们的表面未经打磨，保持着原始状态，保留着皮肤和毛发的质感，唤起人们对器官、化石或未知生命形态的联想。它们拒绝被明确分类，游走于动物与物体、躯体与地形、熟悉与陌生之间的模糊界限。

这件作品并不试图再现具体的生物，而是旨在体现那残留、感官与未解之谜。这些实体静静地伫立着，未诉说任何故事，却散发着强烈的存在感。当观者凝视它们时，会渐渐意识到自己正被注视——这种注视并非来自拥有眼睛的主体，而是那种拒绝被物化的存在在默默地回应。

这是一场关于共存、疏离以及认知界限的静默沉思。它既不是一个标本，也非仅仅是一种象征，而是一片异质领域，在观赏与难以完全了解之间低声诉说。

Work 2
“Do Not Climb”
   2023
LI YAOZE
This work embodies the image of "Terminus," symbolizing human territory and boundaries—a powerful and stern figure representing the rules and authority we establish within our living space. Beneath this idol, a black cat lies on the ground, its gaze fixed on the figure. The cat looks puzzled, as if wondering, "What is this? Is it my toy?" The head of the idol is a cat toy, creating a strange contrast that emphasizes the seriousness of human-set rules while also giving the impression that these rules might be nothing more than some absurd "toy."

This reminds me of a simple daily struggle between me and the cat. Once, we both competed for the right to use a chair. I tried to sit in it, only to find it already occupied. The cat jumped up and lay there, and although I tried to shoo it away, it just stared at me, unflinching. In that moment, I realized that to it, that chair was its "territory," and I, bound by human rules, had become the "intruder." Behind this seemingly trivial conflict lies a deeper reflection: what do our rules and boundaries truly mean? And to pets, these rules might seem like toys—perhaps meaningless or even laughable.

Through this lighthearted everyday interaction, I aim to make the work not just about the relationship between humans and animals but also a reflection on the rules and boundaries we set for ourselves. We live within a system we’ve created, but what is it really for? How does it influence the way we interact with the world around us, especially with pets and other living beings? This is a game between humans and nature, humans and animals, and in the eyes of animals, perhaps the rules we live by are just a pointless game.

这件作品呈现出“终点”（Terminus）的形象，象征着人类所设定的领土和边界——一个强大而严肃的存在，代表着我们在生活空间中建立的规则与权威。在这座神像下方，一只黑猫静静地躺在地上，目光锁定在这尊神像上。猫咪看上去充满困惑，仿佛在疑问：“这是什么？是我的玩具吗？”而这尊神像的头部竟然是一只猫玩具，形成了一种奇异的对比，既凸显了人类所设定规则的严肃性，又让人觉得这些规则或许只不过是荒诞的“玩具”。

这让我想起了我和猫之间的一次简单日常争斗。那时我们争夺一把椅子的使用权，我试图坐下，却发现椅子已被占用。猫跳上椅子趴下，尽管我试图把它赶走，它依然毫不示弱地盯着我看。那一刻，我意识到，对它来说，那把椅子就是它的“领土”，而我，受限于人类的规则，成了“入侵者”。在这看似微不足道的冲突背后，其实蕴含着一个更深刻的思考：我们的规则和边界到底意味着什么？而对于宠物来说，这些规则或许就像玩具——既毫无意义，甚至显得可笑。

通过这段轻松的日常互动，我试图使这件作品不仅仅关乎人类与动物之间的关系，而更是对我们为自己设定的规则和边界的一种反思。我们生活在自己构建的体系中，但这究竟是为了什么？它又如何影响我们与周围世界，尤其是与宠物以及其他生物的互动？这是一场关于人类与自然、人类与动物之间的游戏，而在动物看来，我们遵循的那些规则或许只是一场毫无意义的游戏。

Work 3
“About footprints”
2023
LI YAOZE
There is a small mountain behind my house. People used to say a wolf once roamed there—its presence whispered through the trees, leaving behind a certain tension in the air. But over time, the mountain was gradually transformed by human hands: trails were carved, fences erected, spaces cleared for leisure. As the landscape changed, wildlife quietly disappeared.

Still, I remained drawn to the old stories. I began a series of solitary expeditions into the mountain, hoping to find traces of the wolf—perhaps a tuft of fur, scat, or remnants of prey. For two months, I searched, watched, waited. What I found was not the animal itself, but something else—its absence, thick and palpable. The wolf was gone. And yet, it felt as if it still moved somewhere between the leaves and the silence. It no longer lived in flesh, but in memory, in shadow, in the feeling of being watched.

Eventually, I began to notice the moss.

It was everywhere—growing from stone, climbing tree bark, spreading across soil. It grew in corners overlooked, in crevices shaped by time and weather. The moss became, for me, the quiet residue of the wolf’s presence. It witnessed what we could no longer see. In its soft, persistent growth, I saw the wolf’s footprint—not in form, but in spirit.

This work emerged from that realization. The moss became my medium, my metaphor. It embodies repetition and uncertainty, absence and return. The wolf may be extinct in this landscape, but its trace remains—diffuse, spectral, and quietly alive in every patch of green.

在我家后面有一座小山。人们曾说那儿曾有一只狼出没——它的身影在树间低语，给空气中留下某种紧张感。但随着时间的推移，这座小山渐渐被人类改变：开辟了步道，竖起了围栏，空地也变成了休闲场所。随着景观的变化，野生动物悄然消失。

然而，我依然被那些旧日传说所吸引，开始独自踏上山林探寻之旅，希望找到狼的痕迹——也许是一撮毛发、一堆粪便，或者猎物残余。两个月来，我搜索、观察、等待。最终，我所发现的并非那只动物本身，而是另一种东西——那缺席感，浓厚而真实。狼已不再出现，但总觉得它似乎仍徘徊在树叶与静谧之中。它不再以肉体存在，而是活在记忆、影子以及那被注视的感觉中。

渐渐地，我开始注意到苔藓。

苔藓无处不在——它生长在石头上，攀附在树皮上，蔓延在泥土间。它在那些被忽略的角落里、在时间和风雨雕刻出的缝隙中悄然生长。对我来说，苔藓成了狼曾存在过的沉默残留物。它记录下了我们已无法看见的一切。在那柔软而持续生长的痕迹中，我看到了狼的踪迹——不是以具体的形态，而是一种精神上的印记。

正是基于这一领悟，作品应运而生。苔藓成为我的媒介和隐喻，它体现了重复与不确定、缺失与重现。或许这座山上已经没有了狼，但它的痕迹依然存在——弥散、幽灵般，静静地在每一片绿色中活着。

Work 4
“Look at Each Other”
2021
LI YAOZE
I placed the animal inside a massive cage. In doing so, I created a kind of zoo—a space of observation, separation, and control. As the observer, I maintain a limited relationship with the animal, one that is shaped and constrained by the boundaries of this man-made structure.

The iron cage functions not only as a physical prison but also as a symbol of confinement and exclusion. It reflects how animals, once part of our shared environment, are now gradually pushed to the periphery of human society—contained, regulated, and distanced.

What captivates me is the way animals look at humans. Their gaze is often still, direct, and unwavering. They observe other species too, of course, but there is something different in the way they look at us—something that feels intentional. Strikingly, it is only humans who recognize this look for what it is. Other animals may shy away from such a stare, but humans meet it, understand it. In that moment, something unspoken is exchanged—a quiet, intense recognition. A gaze that cuts through the bars.

我把那只动物放进了一个巨大的笼子里，这样一来，我创造出了一种类似于动物园的空间——一个供观察、隔离和控制的场所。作为观察者，我与动物之间保持着一种有限的关系，这种关系正是由这个人造结构的边界所塑造和限制的。

这座铁笼不仅仅是一个物理上的囚笼，更是束缚与排斥的象征。它反映出，曾经生活在我们共同环境中的动物如今正逐渐被推向人类社会的边缘——被限制、管控、并且与我们疏远。

吸引我注意的是动物看向人类的方式。它们的眼神常常是静止、直接且坚定不移的。当然，它们也会观察其他物种，但它们望向我们时的目光却显得格外不同，仿佛蕴含着刻意的深意。令人印象深刻的是，只有人类能够真正解读这种目光，而其他动物可能会避开这种凝视。就在那一刻，无声之间传递出一种安静而强烈的认同——一种穿过铁栏的凝视。

Work 5
“The man in the mask”
2021
LI  YAOZE
In this series of works, I explore the significance of each posture I assume during the creative process through the lens of human semiotics. Some figures kneel like devout believers, others sit in quiet contemplation. Some crouch low, silently witnessing change, while others seek the grounding presence of a stable platform.

Each body cradles the skulls with a languid, familiar intimacy—an embrace that carries both tenderness and weight. These sculptures speak without language. Instead, I aim to evoke a more instinctive, wordless expression—one that gestures toward the subtle relationship between existence and disappearance. The skulls here are not mere symbols, but witnesses of presence, linking the corporeal past with the living present.

在这一系列作品中，我通过人类符号学的视角探索在创作过程中每一种姿态所蕴含的意义。有些形象像虔诚信徒般跪着祈祷，有的则静坐沉思；有的低伏在地，默默见证着变化，而有的则寻求那稳固平台带来的依托。

每个身体都以一种慵懒而熟悉的亲密感轻柔地抱着骷髅——这种拥抱既饱含温柔，又富有分量。这些雕塑不依赖语言来表达内涵，而是我试图唤起一种更为本能、无言的表达方式，暗示着存在与消逝之间那种微妙的关联。这里的骷髅不仅仅是象征，它们作为存在的见证者，将有形的过去与充满生命的现在联系在了一起。

Work 6
2025
During the creation process
创作中........