The Last Sunset
2026
Two-channel 4K/8K video installation, color, stereo sound, 13'46"
The artist uses their voice to repeatedly simulate an air siren throughout the final sunset of the year,
interacting with a soundscape regenerated from a global archive of siren footage.
Excerpt, Two-channel 4K/8K video installation, color, stereo sound, 13'46"
This performance-based video work is staged on a frozen sea during the final sunset of the 2025 lunisolar calendar year. Facing the falling sun, the artist is wrapped in a reflective emergency blanket that mirrors the diminishing solar light. The artist repetitively simulates the piercing, descending trajectory of a mechanical siren using only the human voice, a physical exertion that persists until the sunset concludes and the body reaches total voice loss.
The two-channel presentation features synchronized footage from dual camera angles, documenting the nuanced shifts in luminosity on the artist’s figure and the surrounding landscape. Alongside the live performance, the audio component integrates a global archive of found siren footage collected from war zones, emergency drills, and moments of collective mourning. Machine learning algorithms process these acoustic memories in resonance with the fading solar light, regenerating them into an anonymous, echo-like sonic landscape that interacts directly with the deteriorating human voice.
The siren and the voice operate both as a universal acoustic symbol beyond language, embodying physical trauma and collective memory. Its rising and falling pitch mirrors the inevitable descent of the sun, forming a global melody of perpetual alert. During the archival research, the artist discovered a profound geopolitical disparity: sirens remain entirely absent in many active conflict zones due to destroyed infrastructures or systemic silencing. Intervening in this void, the artist’s body becomes the absent siren, emitting a visceral warning for the unprotected.
In this work, the human voice serves as a corporeal vessel to embody this mechanical signal. It uses pure physical resonance to articulate human fragility, expressing profound anxieties that semantic language can no longer contain. The artist forces the organic throat to replicate the precision of a warning system directly against the dying light. This act exposes the rupture between the stability we seek and the unstable reality we inhabit.
As the solar light fades, the artist’s body reaches exhaustion. The vocal siren deteriorates in sync with the darkening horizon, shifting from a signal of external danger into an internal cry. It becomes a sonic manifestation of an uncertain future, negotiating with the encroaching darkness through the raw limits of the physical body.
Air Sirens Archives, Tianjun Li
The Last Sunset was developed at Saari Residence by the Kone Foundation, assisted by Stellan Veloce, Finland, 2026