Liying Bai
Bio
Liying Bai is a multi-media artist born in Sichuan, China. She studies at the University of Toronto, with a double major in Studio Art and Environmental Studies. She is practicing photography, painting, digital arts, and sculpture.
Most of her artworks are based on the things around her. In doing so, she is good at discovering things in daily life. Liying also enjoys reminiscing about the past and studying the disappearance of old objects to discover the history and story behind it. In addition, her favorite color is green, so she gravitates towards the natural environment. Liying analyzes environmental problems around her and hopes to make artworks that can arouse people's thinking about history and environmental protection.
Water & Plastic
My work is comprised of two sculptures made out of resin. This series of sculptures show what water is like when it is polluted by plastic products. First, the constant flow of dirty water from the plastic cup forms a pool similar to a lake and sea, and the plastic cup symbolizes the source of pollution. In modern society, plastic products such as bags, bottles, and takeout boxes are flooding rivers and seas causing serious water pollution due to the product's durability. A lot of plastic debris, dry plants, and micro-plastics are added to the resin, which symbolizes bacteria and microorganisms growing and forming moss in the water and appearing as a murky dark green color.
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Then, the second water model reflects the problem of microplastics in the ocean and river. Large pieces of plastic can be easily found and treated, but more plastic products can be decomposed into microplastic particles smaller than 5mm under the action of UV light, waves, and salt corrosion. Besides, these microplastic particles can come from a variety of products that people use every day and eventually get into people's bodies in a variety of ways. I hope that through these two sculptures, the viewers can realize the harm of plastic products to the environment and human beings to raise people's awareness of environmental protection and to reduce the use of plastic.
DETAILS
The Old Rickshaws
This work is a series of photographic works. The main elements of the work are bikes, which reflect modern culture, and three-wheeled rickshaws, the most popular means of transportation 20 years ago. The shooting site is an old community mainly behind one of the busiest central streets of Chengdu city. It is hard to imagine that such a building with a long history is hidden behind the busy wall. Everything here is in keeping with my image of that time in my childhood.
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The passenger tricycles, which were all over the streets in China decades ago, have been replaced by a large number of different brands of shared bikes in recent years. When I was young, cars were expensive and rare items among normal families, and people mostly relied on artificial tricycles for daily travel. It was difficult to be like today, as the roads were filled with cars and shared bikes, and people's way of travel changed suddenly. Dilapidated bicycles and tricycles are incompatible with the bright new shared bikes. Faced with such visual conflict between old and new, most people may think that tricycles are outdated things that should be eliminated. But I was reminded that in the past, they were also one of the most popular and convenient means of transportation, and even now, when there are more convenient ways of transportation, some people still don't want to give them away.
