Public Screenings at Queens Museum

Program Description

The public event at Queens Museum features artworks created by award-winning Asian American artist collaborative Lily Honglei, who are based in Flushing, NY.

Lily Honglei’s art projects are profoundly inspired by Eastern Asian cultural heritages, including literature, traditional operas and visual design themed around ‘garden.’ Meanwhile, their work integrates digital technology with traditional mediums to reflect on challenging issues such as Asian American identity, immigrant life, and environmental problems facing American society. The proposed exhibition will highlight a series of paintings, prints, animated short films (if equipment and space allow), as well as augmented reality art that can be viewed via smartphones by the audience. The scale of the artworks will be adjusted for the display setting at the art venue.

Lily Honglei’s artworks have been exhibited in many prestigious art museums and galleries around the globe. Through presenting their art practice interweaving cultural heritages and technology, they intend to contribute to the cultural life of immigrant and minority neighborhoods in Queens, NY.

Featured Artworks

Animated Short Film series – based on paintings

Five short animated films created by Lily Honglei over a five years period will be presented to the residential community. These art films, which have been widely distributed at national and international film festivals, focus on Asian American lives and cultural heritages through a unique artistic approach integrating paintings with time-based media. Our goal is to bring contemporary art to the underserved community in New York, specifically Asian American immigrant community in Flushing Chinatown, where we have been residing for years. The project is supported by City Artists Corp Grant.

Peony Pavilion Inspired by PEONY PAVILION, a popular Chinese play written in the 16th century, the animated film visualizes contradictions in a multicultural society based on consumerism. Watch the animation here.

The Milky Way The animated film MILKY WAY reimagines the Chinese folktale of the Weaving Maiden and Buffalo Herder to reflect the social reality of present-day global culture. Watch the animation here.

Butterfly Lovers Reinterpreting a popular east Asian folktale, THE BUTTERFLY LOVERS reflects on Asian American cultural identity in metropolis. Visit Project Page for more info or watch the video.

The Moon By setting original ink painting works in motion, MOON presents a natural phenomenon in a manner that unveils an introspective human world – an approach is profoundly inspired by traditional eastern poetry and art. Visit Project Page for more info or watch the video.

The Peony Inspired by “Peony and Chinese Bulbul,” a popular theme of Chinese ink painting that symbolizes prosperity, wealth and longevity, PEONY creates a very different atmosphere by blending motion, sound, space and imagery. Visit Project Page for more info or watch the video.

Postcards + Augmented Reality

To increase audience engagement and outreach, Lily Honglei has designed a series of postcards implementing augmented reality (AR) technology that allows viewers to perceive and interact with artworks via their mobile devices. The postcards featuring Lily Honglei’s animated short films will be distributed at various branches of Queens Public Library and NYPL. Visitors at these venues may take these free postcards home, enjoy the interactive artworks at home or share with families and friends.

AR contents available in early October, 2021.

Gardens: Fairytales of Globalization

Based on research in Asian visual heritages and history of global plant trade, the project visualizes “garden design and its evolution” as the result of East and West cultural exchange, as well as their implications to sustainability. Project presentation will integrate oil paintings, prints, animations and augmented reality on mobile phones. The project is supported by Queens Art Fund New Work Grant 2021. For more info, visit project website here.

The Sunken Garden

Portraying endangered species in New York State and beyond, The Sunken Garden project consists of a series of prints, oil painting and augmented reality components. Audiences at all ages may enjoy colorful and dynamic animations based on the prints and paintings through their smartphones. The work has been exhibited at Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Queens NY and many other international venues.  The project is supported by City Artists Corp Grant. Learn more about the project here.

Lily Honglei artist bio

Artist collaborative Lily Honglei is based in the US. Their practice involves both traditional and new media art, notably paintings, video art, virtual reality, and augmented reality projects.

Lily Honglei’s artworks have been presented at numerous prestigious venues for contemporary art, including Museum of Art and Design in New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Queens Museum of Art in New York, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, The Painting Center of New York, Eyebeam Art Technology Center New York, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning in New York, Asian American Art Alliance in New York, Dumbo Art Festival in New York, Boston Cyberart Festival, Zero1 Biennial of New Media Art in San Jose CA, Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, University Gallery at University of Massachusetts, Musée Guimet in Paris, Museum of Ara Pacis in Rome, Museum of San Salvador in Lauro, Rome, He Xiangning Art Museum in China, Shanghai University Gallery in China, SIGGRAPH Art Gallery and SIGGRAPH Asia.

Lily Honglei received awards including People’s Choice Award at Museum of Art & Design in New York, Creative Capital 2015 Award for Moving Image & Visual Arts, New York Foundation of Arts Fellowship 2015, among others. They have accomplished large-scale commission projects for New York State Council on the Arts in 2018 and 2020, Jamaica Flux triennial festival at Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning NY in 2014 and 2017, Queens Council on the Arts in 2016, 2019 and 2021, Creative Capital Foundation in 2015, Jerome Foundation in 2014 via Turbulence.org, to name a few.