Between Stillness and Motion: Sizhu Li’s Moonment at the Contemporary at Blue Star

As I observed the kinetic installations of Moonment: Finding A Way, a wave of nostalgia washed over me. Rolls of aluminum, suspended like bridges both on the ground and in the air, swayed rhythmically in response to the varying speeds of the fans. One particular roll, carefully positioned to shift with the changing currents of air, evoked the ebb and flow of the tides in Corpus Christi Bay. I was transported back to the fall of 2021, in my final semester at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, jogging along Ocean Drive, where the cityscape met the sea. I could almost feel myself sitting by the rocks at Cole Park, watching small waves crash against them. The moon’s gravitational pull is what drives these rhythmic movements of the water, a force both constant and unseen. 

Sizhu Li, “Moonment,” aluminum sheets, wood, Arduino, and motor fans. Site-specific at the Contemporary at Blue Star. Courtesy of the Contemporary at Blue Star.

The first work in Moonment: Finding A Way emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Li reflected on the poem Gazing at the Moon, Longing from Afar by Tang Dynasty poet and politician Zhang Jiuling. The poem reads:

The seagives birth to a shining moon

As the other end of the worldshares this moment.

This sentimental manresents a distant night

And the whole eveninggives rise to longing.

Extinguishing a candle,feeling the fullness of moonlight

Putting on clothesas I wake in heavy dew.

Unableto fill my hands with this gift

I return to bedand dream a lovely tryst.

The poem expresses the longing to connect across space and time by looking to the moon. Li states that the moon and movement “is something very universal… for people to connect to each other, because we have only one moon.” It’s no surprise that the idea for this installation emerged during a time of isolation when so many of us sought ways to stay in touch.

Not all of the installations in this exhibit are moving; there are static artworks like the three in Oops, caught’ya!. In these works, Li suspends bent aluminum from a frame, where the metal acts as the support for binder clips on the bottom. While the kinetic works in Moonment flow freely with air currents, these in Oops, caught’ya! remain fixed, held in place by the clips. This contrast symbolizes the tension between movement and restriction, or the human desire to control what is naturally in flux. 

Sizhu Li, “Oops, caught’ya!,” 2025, 16 x 20 x 6 inches each, Aluminum, nylon string, wood. Courtesy of the Contemporary at Blue Star.

The use of everyday objects like binder clips, which are designed to hold things together temporarily, suggests the futility of trying to contain motion. Unlike the fluid, air-driven movement of the larger kinetic Moonment installations, Oops, caught’ya! replaces organic flow with rigid, manufactured materials, turning ephemeral motion into something graspable—yet still impermanent. This shift from natural to man-made forces us to consider what it means to be held in place, whether physically, emotionally, or conceptually.

The exhibit consists of a series of site-specific, kinetic and static installations in which Li explores aluminum as an artistic medium. The material’s reflective surface mirrors the shifting light, much like moonlight shimmering on water, reinforcing the installation’s themes of movement, connection, and distance. More than just an exploration of material, Moonment invites us to consider how these mechanical tides parallel our own relationships—with the moon, our memories, and the people we hold dear.

Sizhu Li: Moonment: Finding A Way is on display at the Contemporary at Blue Star until May 4, 2025.