Yi Zhou Embraces Art's Multidisciplinary, Multimedia Future

Artist Yi Zhou is, in a way, the ideal embodiment of how the approach to making art has changed in the 21st century through advances in technology and globalization. With a mix of nationalities and identities, born in China but educated in the West, she studied both science and the arts and is multilingual, while her work encompasses a varierty of different media and disciplines.

In these media savvy times where pretty much anyone with some determination and a computer can get a viral video made and seen by hundreds of thousands of people, the multimedia approach to making art is an attitude embraced by many. Zhou works in the medium of 3D animation, but also uses similar techniques—the way she might layer textures for example—for her fashion creations.

"We've really come to a moment where architecture, design, art, music, and things get mixed up much more." she notes in the video above. "And I think that's the challenge—and if you have the courage to take the challenge, why would you stay inside a certain world, a certain universe?"

Her film Hollowness, which was recently shown at the Cannes film festival, is an example of this approach. The film is a collaboration with French art and fashion brand Each x Other and uses elements of her 3D animation Unexpected Hero, taking visuals from the film and projecting them onto clothes to become embroidery or embossment. The patterned clothes were then worn by celebrities and non-celebs in the film to represent the modern democratic experience of social media—while the film's title reflects the sense of emptiness the quick-paced, throwaway format of social media can engender.

It's a place where identity is fragmented and manifold and information flows constantly, where we're all hungry for publicity—a place where you're just as likely to come across a celeb's blurry smartphone photo as you are a member of your family. You can check out the video and some film stills from Hollowness below.

Images courtesy of Yi Zhou