Li Yilei is a London-based Chinese artist and composer whose work investigates alternative modes of listening, and reflecting upon the tacitness and transience of existential occurrences. Their artistic practice often incorporates sound, found materials, movements, text, and experimental scores. Li’s work exemplifies serendipitous encounters between individuals and their environment, focusing on the muted state, the unheard, and the voices of the disabled and untrained. The overarching theme of implicit knowledge and disability stems from their relationship with the outside world as an individual on the autism spectrum with sensory issues and selective mutism. 

With a background in violin and piano, Li’s sound-making process frequently utilizes tapes, theremin, a diverse range of string instruments, field recordings, contact microphones, synthesizers, as well as self-made instruments to evoke a sense of tranquility and ambience, occasional juxtaposed with more abrasive elements. Composing for film, theater and dance, a releasing music and performing internationally since 2017, Li’s work has been performed and showcased in venues like the London’s Barbican Centre, King’s Place, and Cafe Oto, ESEA Contemporary in Manchester, Tai Kwun Contemporary Hong Kong, Beijing’s UCCA for Contemporary Art, Lincoln Centre in New York, MAO Turino, and more.

As of April 2024