Today, Tomorrow, and the Tales from the Wind 今天、明日和风中故事
Photography, Sound, and Performance
2023 - Ongoing
Today, Tomorrow, and the Tales from the Wind is a long-term exploration of human-nature’s paralleled phenomena and the nomadic search for a sense of homeland, through photography and vocal-sonic experiments.
Photos are my signals, sent back and forth between my current home and the place I left behind.
I merge photographs from my hometown in China with those taken during my migratory journey in Finland and Iceland, recomposing the nature landscapes and the “artificial illuminations” as metaphors, to reimagine a utopian fairyland where drifters find home and human-nature coexistence thrives.
When I left China for a new country, my childhood forest which I grew up with was flattened due to the urban planning. Arriving in this new, uncertain land, my photographs became records of a lost homeland—forests, dust, people—turning into personal archives of grief and irreversible change. Revisiting these images in Finland revealed a depth of emotion I hadn’t expected, connecting me to both past and present. The shape of home becomes traces of the wind in these square-framed photographs, like my migratory journey—drifting yet finding roots through invisible forces.
By overlaying these photographs, I bring the light of my hometown’s lighthouse to Iceland’s canyons, pair Chinese city lights with a Finnish child in a forest, and turn highway illumination into a giant, mysterious machine in the misty Finnish sky. Birds flying alongside cruise ship lights, trees from my homeland transplanted into Iceland’s deforested landscapes, and the frozen sea's air textures merging with ancient glacial stones evoke fleeting transience and timeless permanence; Migratory birds from southern China soar above Icelandic skies...
As a sonic-vocal artist and a synesthete, I extend this project beyond photography, creating films and a photo-sound album that experiment with my voice, presenting them as multi-sensory installations, performances and concerts.
Listen to the Sound Art Album “Today, Tomorrow, and the Tales from the Wind”
Artist Statement about the Project
Tianjun Li, 2024
This project, which began in 2023, represents my ongoing interdisplinary exploration of photograph and sound. It includes a photography series, a sound art album, video works, and live performances. Beyond exhibitions, the project has been presented as visual concerts and in the form of an artist book and record. It started from my reflections on the deforestation happening both in my homeland and Finland, as well as an exploration of the interconnectedness between humans and nature. Over time, it expanded into a broader contemplation of the search for home, deeply influenced by my experiences of living in Finland and Iceland after leaving home.
In the photography series, I treat images as signals, sent back and forth between my current home and the place I left behind. I recompose photographs taken in my homeland with those captured during my stays in Finland and Iceland, re-composing them together in a way that reimagines a utopian world of dreams, hope, and human nature co-existence. Through double exposure, I merge the light of my hometown’s lighthouse with Iceland’s canyons; the city lights of my homeland encircle a boy standing in a Finnish forest; trees from my homeland are transplanted into Icelandic landscapes, barren due to deforestation and climate change, and other various photographic elements that are connected in hidden but delicate manners. The documentary nature of the images transforms into a space for imagined realities.
In this project, I also began exploring sound and the human voice. As a synesthete, I naturally see images in sound. The project culminated in a music album that serves as a soundtrack to the photography series. Using my own vocal experiments, field recordings from Iceland and Finland, as well as recordings from my homeland, I reassembled these elements to create a wordless soundscape that reflects themes of migration, self-exploration, and coexisting with nature, as well as the search for the meaning of home. When we return to being creatures—just humans—the wordless voice carries the power of speech.
1839 Award Exhibition, Contemporary Image Museum, Chengdu international Photography Festival, 2023
Tianjun Li: Today, Tomorrrow, and the Tales from the Wind, Photo North-Northern Photographic Centre (FI), 2024Tianjun Li: Today, Tomorrrow, and the Tales from the Wind, Photo North-Northern Photographic Centre (FI), 2024
Slideshow at Fotobus and POLYCOPIES, During Paris Photo 2024
Photography - Sound Performance, Helsinki, 2023
A Whale’s Sympathy, Performance, Reykjavík, Iceland, 2023
Photo- Sound Artist Book, 2024