Documenting the speculation and observation of the scanned, operative, and performative bodies against transparent and infrastructural aesthetics of the national leading nanotechnology laboratory, INFINITE REPLICAS delves into the immense visibility bestowed by new scientific and technological imaging tools and asks, “what is (not) to be seen?”

Developed during a residency at the MIT nanotechnology lab, this project probes the dichotomy and yet resonance between art and science by returning to one of their earlier convergences: life drawing, a canon of visual surveying that mirrors, and is constantly conditioned by evolving identity politics, new art discourses and technological advancements. The video excerpt documented a real-life incidence when a model that the artist commissioned was prohibited to pose nude for a life drawing session set at the nano lab.

Director/Editor: Kwan Q Li

Cinematographers: Kwan Q Li, Weihan Jiang, Joel Cunningham

Cast: Mari Kishi, Diana Guo, Sharon Lacey, Tobias Putrih, Meriam Soltan, Nomeda Urbonas

Thanks: Sara L Brown, Vladmir Bulovic, Samatha T. Farrell, Whitney Rochelle Hess, Sarah Hirzel, Graham Yeager, Shaowen Zhang

Coalescing lens-based media, installation, performance, and writing, Kwan Q Li’s practice examines the relations of conflict within postcolonial, technopolitical, and ecological explorations. She approaches the complexity of dominant forces through probing their “dispositif”: the set of interplaying actors that constitutes institutional and cultural power. Her work has been exhibited in the Venice Architecture Biennale (HK Pavilion, 2021), Ars Electronica (2021), Threshold Journal (MIT Press, 2022), and more. She has been awarded funding and residencies in Hong Kong and Singapore, through the Design Trust (2019) and IdeasCity co-organised by the NTU CCA and the New Museum (2020). She was the recipient of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize by the Art Council at MIT (2022), and was awarded the Stuart Morgan Prize for Art History at the Oxford University (2019).