Undocumented Life & Death

Press Release

The oil painting series reveals the model minority’s hardships and adversities from the first-person perspective, aiming to make a strong voice for an invisible, underrepresented group. The work highlights stories such as The Life & Death of My Friend Xiao Lee (F7), depicting the life of a food delivery worker who was tragically killed by a trash truck; The Job Experiences of Mr. Liu (F1, F2, F3, F4), which illustrates the new immigrant who worked various difficult jobs and struggled to make a living in New York; Our Broadway Showcase (F5) that reveals the violence and harassment against Asian immigrants who work around Times Square.

I met Lao Liu when I worked in a Chinese restaurant. He took many low-paying jobs such as in a vegetable farm, nail salon (F2), Chinese restaurant, doing massage (F3), renovation, and finally collecting bottles and cans on the street (F4); these are typical job options for Chinese new immigrants.

Honglei Li

Our Broadway Showcase (F5) is based on my experience working as a portrait artist at Times Square. The composition design takes inspiration from a Chinese antique showcase, where the stories of immigrant artists unfold. The background reveals midtown Manhattan, where people attend glamorous Broadway shows. As portrait artists, we were only allowed to work after midnight. We always worked around 2 or 3 AM when Times Square turned into a ghost town with an empty sea of neon signs. Our state of mind resonated with the desolate surroundings. 

Honglei Li

Casualty of American Dream: Life and Death of My Friends (F6) is a triptych inspired by the Christian altarpiece and Tibetan religious painting- tangka. It depicts the real-life stories of my Chinese immigrant friends, who all died young due to harsh living and working conditions. 

The left section (F7) portrays my close friend who is killed by a garbage truck while delivering Chinese food in Manhattan. The right section (F8) illustrates my artist friend, who is murdered outside his dwelling in Queens, NY, on a rainy night. His case quickly turned cold because he didn’t have family in the States to pursue it. The middle section (F9) illustrates a young immigrant artist who falls ill while working as a street vendor in midtown Manhattan and dies in a hospital shortly after.

Honglei Li

Undocumented Life & Death aims at visualizing many adversities experienced by the Asian immigrant population, that marginal group that has been overlooked in the American cultural landscape. The painting series also highlights Asian immigrants’ cultural heritage, which plays a crucial role in constructing new cultural memories and identities for the AAPI community.