Artist Lucy Mu Li is presenting her latest photographic textile installation, "Field Notes in the Vortex," at the A Reason to Survive gallery in National City, California. The work is part of the "EROTECH" exhibition, which showcases several San Diego AAPI Emerging Artist Fellowship recipients through August 7.
Reclaiming Carlsbad from a Settler-Colonial Perspective
Li’s work addresses a personal evolution that began when she returned to her childhood home in Carlsbad in 2020. As reported by the source, her earlier years in Southern California were marked by a sense of detachment, where the dominant surf and beach culture felt exclusionary to her Chinese American identity. She decsribed this sensation as "hovering above the ground," a feeling of being present but not truly connected to the landscape.
This sense of displacement is a common theme for many in the diaspora, but Li uses it as a springboard to develop a new, organic connection to the land and waters that hold her. By moving away from the extractive frameworks often associated with colonial views of land, she seeks to establish a ritualistic connection to the local lagoons and shorelines.
The San Diego AAPI Fellowship and the EROTECH Platform
The "EROTECH" exhibition, titled "Expanded Erotics for Reclaiming Aliveness," provides a professional platform for early-career creators. According to the report, the show features works by San Diego AAPI Emerging Artist Fellowship recipients, including Armaan Mumtaz and Kelsey Boncato. This fellowship is designed to offer leadership and professional development, helping artists like Li transition their personal inquiries into public-facing installations.
The exhibition as a whole invites the audience into a space where "expanded erotics"—defined as a deep, loving connection—becomes a tool for forging sustainable, reciprocal bonds with the earth. this approach allows the fellowship recipients to present innovative work that challenges traditional environmental engagement.
Navigating Land Love Without Ancestral Ties
A central pillar of Li's practice is the interrogation of how one can care for a territory without having inherited ancestral connections to it. Her work attempts to align with Indigenous land sovereignty, proposing that responsibility to the environment can be earned through "deep listening" and lived experience rather than just lineage.
Li’s installation, "Field Notes in the Vortex," serves as a tangible manifestation of this inquiry . By focusing on the more-than-human world, her work challenges viewers to consider their own ethical positions and responsibilities toward the environments they inhabit, regardless of their ancestral history.
Who is the unnamed fourth artist in the EROTECH lineup?
While the exhibition highlights several key figures , the source leaves the identity of the fourth artist in the group show unverified. Additionally, while the "EROTECH" theme is described as "expanded erotics," the specific ways this concept translates visually across the different media used by Mumtaz and Boncato remain unclear to the reader.
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