YUCHEN LI (MOXI)Visual Artist/ Photographer
This project takes the visual language of the Fuyun Xuan Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles as its point of departure, reinterpreting it through contemporary beauty photography. Historically, snuff bottles function as objects where craftsmanship and painting converge, while also serving as intimate items closely connected to the body, carrying personal use and emotional memory. Their forms, materials, and decorative patterns embody time, tactility, and cultural experience.
Drawing from the curves, textures, character, and painted motifs of snuff bottles, the creators translate these visual elements into facial composition, make-up textures, and photographic language. Throughout the creative process, Kyra and Moxi collaboratively explored the presentation of make-up, allowing beauty to move beyond a decorative function and become an artistic medium integrated with the human face. The face is regarded as a “living surface,” bearing colour, traces, and emotion. By merging the craftsmanship inherent in traditional objects with the human face, the project examines beauty as a cultural vessel that connects tradition and contemporary visual expression through the body.