Xin Li
Animation Artist Filmmaker
Melbourne, Australia
Xin is from Harbin, the largest city in remotest North Eastern reaches of China. Sometimes known as the pearl on the swan’s neck (check a map, you’ll see why), or Ice City claiming the most bitterly cold winters among major Chinese cities. Home to the internationally renowned Ice Sculpture Festival. Once known as Manchu, meaning “a place for drying fishing nets” it became a Russian city in 1895, was home to the biggest Far East Jewish community in the 1920s and 30s, is home to a 250-acre Siberian tiger park, appointed in 2010 by the United Nations as City of Music. From this diverse cultural background, Xin’s early experience of life in art begins.
“I picked up a calligraphy brush, I was five years old,” recounts Xin. “My father stood over me and watched. Any mistake he tore up. ‘Start again,’ he would say.”
“Of course, I was upset. He didn’t want me to collect mistakes, just correct them.
“This is his way to learn traditional art.”
A hard lesson, undeterred Xin had his sights set on being an art teacher in China.
“What I didn’t know, my Mother collected and stored away my secret paintings.
“Years later she showed them to me, all with the year written on each one.
“She told me to look at my improvement.”
Always with an outward perspective Xin knew to develop and expand his horizons he must leave Harbin and move to Australia to study animation. The tug provided him with his first animated success, Warm Winter, a beautiful and emotional story on the impact of a son leaving his family. Xin settled into Brisbane’s Griffith Film School, Griffith University. A three-minute animation A Tale of Longing about the push and pull of a long-distance relationship garnered prestigious awards from the University; Most Outstanding Honors Project, Most Outstanding Production Design, and nominated for Best Director. The film later shown at the Melbourne International Animation Festival.
What excites the industry, and film goers, is Xin’s method of animation, oil paint applied directly to glass, a painstaking, time intensive style.
“It takes me ten to twelve painted glass frames to capture one second of film time,” Xin said. “My work is story driven, using this technique I feel it is poetic, more personal and intimate.”
He travelled to Russia to attend the 4th VGIK International Summer School in furthering his technique and film making style. Mentored by animators Alexsandr Petrov, Stanislav Sokov and Garry Bardin his completed film Birth of the City was awarded Best Animation by an expert Jury from the State Institute of Cinematography.
Moving to Melbourne as an independent artist paid off. Picked up by Coburg company ohyeahwow using his unique paint-on-glass technique he animated video clips for The Jezabels Come Alive, and then for Neil Young’s Peace Trail. Xin’s animation perfectly captured the mood and textures of Melbourne singer Sophie Koh’s Yellow Rose off her 2017 album Book of Songs. Next, The Big Push, a short film based on John Glenday’s poem of the same name. Inspired by James Herbert Gunn’s 1916 painting The Eve of the Battle of the Somme commissioned by The Poetry Society in UK drew rapturous praise for his sensitive animation.
Xin is working on a personal project based on the four seasons with winter and summer to finish the quartet. Autumn completed he was troubled finding the right motivation to create spring. A very personal event created the impetus.
“Feel the butterfly inside,” a doctor said, asking him to place his hands and feel his unborn daughter. Xin was also intrigued by her response to the sound outside. This set-in motion a heartfelt vision of spring, now complete.
Australian now Xin is reveling in the opportunities and the relaxed way of life. He may seem quiet and contemplative, don’t be misled, he is taking note of everything; observant, astute, inquisitive, funny and outgoing. This artist draws inspiration from life.
To view Xin’s animations click on the following links:
Spring: https://vimeo.com/150729236
The Big Push: https://vimeo.com/170790586
Behind the scenes, Yellow Rose: https://youtu.be/NDz1P0m-lt4
For more about Xin: https://xinlianimation.com
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