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Richard James Havis

When does fan art become fine art?
That is a question close to the heart of Shuang Li, a Chinese artist whose work is inspired by her favourite band, My Chemical Romance (MCR).
Although Li’s work has little in common with the sketches of idols that define fan art, her new show at the Swiss Institute in New York leaves no doubt she is making reference to MCR, the American emo group who broke through to the mainstream with their second album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, in 2004.
The centrepiece of the major exhibition is an installation called Heart Is A Broken Record. It features a heart-shaped working fountain with images of screaming fans at MCR concerts projected from above.

An audio recording of an excited audience at the start of an MCR concert plays on a loop, stopping abruptly at the point when the band appear on stage, and starting again after a pause.
It is a symbol of fans’ longing for unobtainable objects of desire, Li says. The silence that follows the appearance of the performers in the projection splits the world of the screaming and cheering fans from that of the band.

The work is a celebration of the world that fans create for themselves in the absence of their idols.
The unrefined look of the fountain and the surprise that it holds within may also allude to how Li, who was born in Fujian province, southeast China, in 1990, yearned for escape from the nondescript industrial town she grew up in.
“There wasn’t even a shopping mall to hang out in. So I would spend a lot of time online, just reading, as a teenager,” she says on the rooftop of the Swiss Institute, a non-profit contemporary art venue in Lower Manhattan.
“I felt I was more alive when I was online playing video games and reading. All these different media were making me feel much more alive than living physically.”
“Going online began as a way to escape my surroundings, but then I started to use online media as a way to express myself.”
Li was further removed from MCR than their fans in the West because of geography and China’s economic status at the time.
It’s beautiful to be a fan, and that is the identity I am most comfortable with. I am actually a crazy fan
Shuang Li
She first discovered MCR through “cracked CDs”, unsold stock from CD retailers in the West that were routinely shipped to China as plastic waste to be disposed of (in 2018, China stopped becoming a dumping ground for other countries’ plastic waste).
Their edges were deliberately clipped to make sure they could not be resold as new, but it was discovered that some tracks could still be played, and a black market arose.
For Li, the band’s impact was not diminished by the flawed CDs she could get her hands on. After she taught herself English by listening to more MCR albums, she began to identify with their unique brand of emo goth music.
They sang about death and depression but, instead of wallowing in sadness like many emo groups, their lyrics offered positivity and hope, she says.
Her life has been shaped by being an MCR fan. “I was really impressed by what these five guys from New Jersey had done with their lives. They made me think I could do more,” she says.
Her long-distance, indirect relationship with the band is also at the heart of her art. Until 2022, when she finally got to see them play live, her only exposure to MCR concerts had been through watching them online, which led her to investigate the dislocated way that her generation was living their lives.
That became the subject of her research at New York University, where she graduated in 2014 with a master's degree in media studies.
She has been living in Berlin and in Geneva, in Switzerland, since the Covid-19 pandemic, when the absence of bodily contact became a global experience.
For a 2022 group show called “Where Jellyfish Come From” at Antenna Space gallery in Shanghai, Li created a performance piece called Lord of the Flies.


At the time, she could not get home to China because of travel restrictions, and so she chose 20 people in Shanghai to be her avatars, asking them to dress in her favourite MCR T-shirt.
“I watched it from afar. It really invoked an image of freedom for me. It was a kind of virtual self – it was like having 20 virtual bodies,” she says.
On the ground floor of Li’s New York exhibition, which has a theme of absences and unfixed identity, there is a large installation resembling a half-finished construction project.
It contains shoes that were worn by the Shanghai performers during Lord of the Flies, and there is an embedded screen showing a video of people in army uniforms singing an a cappella version of MCR’s song “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”.
They are singing in Mandarin, the lyrics Li’s translation of the original ones. The work, called simply I’m Not, is also the name of the exhibition, and it emphasises the cultural dislocation and room for creative interpretation you have when listening to music in a language you do not understand.

While fandom, like Li’s art, thrives on a sense of absence, the thrill of having an in-real-life encounter with one’s idols is still hard to beat.
Recently, Li met the band’s rhythm guitar player, Frank Iero, at a signing in New Jersey on her way to New York to prepare for the Swiss Institute show.
“I had a copy of Flash Art International magazine, and the issue had a picture of the Lord of the Flies performance on the cover. So I showed it to him. It was an amazing experience, as he was genuinely impressed. He told me it was great and asked me for my autograph. I got his and he got mine!
“I came back here to the Swiss Institute and cried. It was so crazy!”
So she is still a fan, then? “Yes, I am a fan,” Li answers emphatically. “It’s beautiful to be a fan, and that is the identity I am most comfortable with. I am actually a crazy fan.”
“Shuang Li: I’m Not” is co-organised by the Swiss Institute and the Aspen Art Museum. It is on view at the Swiss Institute until August 25.


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American artist Howardena Pindell on how racism shaped her work, now on show in Hong Kong

This week in PostMag: Clockenflap, The Fringe Club and even more art

Chinese artist takes My Chemical Romance fan art up a notch at New York show with Mandarin riff on I’m Not Okay and more

Chinese artist Shuang Li, whose New York exhibition, I’m Not, features My Chemical Romance-themed art that convey a sense of disconnect between fans and their idols. Photo: Majid Al-Remaihi

Li’s work Heart Is A Broken Record. Photo: Shuang Li / Swiss Institute / Daniel Pérez

My Chemical Romance perform at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, in 2022. Photo: Getty Images

A section of Li’s Lord of the Flies performance. Photo: Shuang Li/Peres Projects

Li says watching her Lord of the Flies performance piece made her feel like she had “20 virtual bodies”. Photo: Shuang Li/Peres Projects

Li’s title piece at her new Swiss Institute exhibition, I’m Not. Photo: Shuang Li/Swiss Institute/Daniel Pérez

Intrepid women artists in China, who documented country 1 painting at a time, almost forgotten today

Scottish-born artist Anna Hotchkis circa 1980 in her nineties.

Detail from Entrance to a Chinese Temple – Beijing painted by American artist Mary Augusta Mullikin. She and Scottish-born Anna Hotchkis toured China together painting scenes and portraits, until World War II separated them. Photo: Mary Mullikin

Scottish-born artist Anna M. Hotchkis.

A painting of a Chinese woman by Hotchkis. Photo: Anna Hotchkis

A painting of a Chinese woman by American artist Mary Mullikin. Photo: Mary Mullikin

Entrance to a Temple with incense burner – Beijing by American artist Mary Augusta Mullikin. Photo: Mary Mullikin

A scene in Kirkcudbright, southwest Scotland, painted by Anna Hotchkis. Photo: Anna Hotchkis

A painting of a Chinese man by Hotchkis. Photo: Anna Hotchkis

A painting by Hotchkis. Photo: Anna Hotchkis

A painting of Tan Che Ssu temple in Beijing by Hotchkis. Photo: Anna Hotchkis

A street scene painted by Hotchkis. Photo: Anna Hotchkis

American artist Mary Augusta Mullikin.

A painting of a Chinese temple in Beijing by Mullikin. Photo: Mary Mullikin

A Chinese landscape painting of a ceremonial gate by Mullikin. Photo: Mary Mullikin

Sea Congo, Diamond River, Korea, painted by Hotchkis. Photo: Anna Hotchkis

Shih Chia Fo cave painting from China’s Wei dynasty in the Yungang Grottoes painted by Mullikin. Photo: Mary Mullikin

Shih Chia Fo cave painting from China’s Wei dynasty in the Yungang Grottoes painted by Hotchkis. Photo: Anna Hotchkis

Houses along a canal (probably Hangzhou) by Mullikin. Photo: Mary Mullikin

A Chinese house-temple painted by Mullikin. Photo: Mary Mullikin

Interior of a Chinese Courtyard – Beijing painted by Mullikin. Photo: Mary Mullikin

City Steps by Mullikin. Photo: Mary Mullikin

Path through a Chinese temple – Beijing by Mullikin. Photo: Mary Mullikin

Entrance – Beijing by Mullikin. Photo: Mary Mullikin

A painting of junks in Hong Kong by Hotchkis. Photo: Anna Hotchkis

The cover of Buddhist Sculptures of the Yun Kang Caves.

The cover of The Nine Sacred Mountains Of China.

Anna Hotchkis in her nineties.

Hong Kong Bruce Nauman retrospective traces the American multimedia artist’s work over 6 decades – and it’s no easy show

Bruce Nauman’s Animal Pyramid (1989), property of Pinault Collection. Photo: Jimmy Ho/courtesy of Tai Kwun

Bruce Nauman video art on display at the American multimedia artist’s retrospective at Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun Contemporary. This work is Contrapposto Studies, I through VII (2015/2016), jointly owned by Pinault Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo: Jimmy Ho/courtesy of Tai Kwun

The first piece visitors to the Bruce Nauman retrospective at Tai Kwun Contemporary see is The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign) (1967), on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo: Jimmy Ho/courtesy of Tai Kwun

Bruce Nauman’s Raw War (1970), property of the Antonio Homem and the Sonnabend Collection Foundation. Photo: Jimmy Ho/courtesy of Tai Kwun

Bruce Nauman’s Thank You (1992) is one of several video pieces by the artist on display at the Tai Kwun Contemporary exhibition. Property of the Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation and Sperone Westwater Gallery. Photo: Jimmy Ho/courtesy of Tai Kwun

Bruce Nauman’s Washing Hands Normal (1996) video piece featured at Tai Kwun Contemporary. Jointly owned by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Photo: Jimmy Ho/courtesy of Tai Kwun

Migrant experiences and lives reflected in multi-artist multimedia exhibition in Hong Kong

Artist Abhishek Desai at Current Plans in Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Nicole Nepomuceno, curator of the “marginalia (notes from the peripheries)“ exhibition, at Current Plans’ temporary art space in Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong.
Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Artists Dhafney Dela Cruz Pineda (left) and Sharu Binnong Sikdar at the Current Plans gallery in Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Artist Katrina Leigh Mendoza Raimann at the Current Plans gallery in Wong Chuk Hang. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Chandramaya Sunwar’s artwork Jaad from Home, featured in the exhibition “marginalia (notes from the peripheries)”. Photo: Faith Monsod    

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Shuang Li’s exhibition I’m Not, at the Swiss Institute, in Manhattan, features sculptures, sounds and videos that reference her favourite American emo band
The artist, who came across MCR listening to discarded CDs while growing up in Fujian, examines the disconnect between ‘crazy’ fans like herself and their idols


Shuang Li grew up in Fujian listening to discarded CDs of American band My Chemical Romance. Her favourite band inspires the art in her New York exhibition I’m Not.


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