In the flickering light of Diana Meridi’s video installations, one does not merely watch; one traverses. Her art functions less as a linear narrative than as a metaphysical terrain, inviting the viewer into internal realms spun from mysticism, illusion, and an ever-watchful eye. Meridi is not simply a maker of images, she is an Architect of the unseen, a conjurer of silent Gods and whispered truths. In a world increasingly intoxicated by surface appearances, Meridi peers beneath using the investigative lens of her art.

To speak of Meridi’s art is to speak of the eye—not the anatomical, but the symbolic, the divine optic that haunts her work. This oculocentric motif is more than a recurring symbol; it is a cipher, a portal, and at times, an interrogator. In Cosmic Observer, the eye floats like a celestial compass, creating a halo for a spectral figure that hovers between astronaut and deity. It could be a lens; it could be a soul. This ambiguity is Meridi’s gift and her challenge–she does not explain, she offers the viewer alternative interpretations.

The threshold is another of Meridi’s metaphors. Threshold of Awareness, another recent piece, crystallizes the space-between, that liminal moment before awakening, or the space between thought and knowing. A meditative figure, poised before an endless ocean, gazes upward, towards a swirling, eye-like sphere that levitates above the head. Meridi creates a trance-like image, reminding us that awareness is not a static possession, but a fragile, spiralling becoming.

Meridi’s work carries the weight of philosophical inquiry without collapsing under it. She does not illustrate ideas; she imbibes them. In this, she joins the lineage of celebrated moving image artists like Joan Jonas and Pipilotti Rist–women who tore open the potential of video art, not through domination, but through deep listening. In a field historically defined by masculine structures–think of Christian Marclay’s sampling, Bill Viola’s sublime endurance–Meridi’s voice is subterranean and spiralling. Her art resists monumentality. It murmurs instead.

If video, as Bill Viola once said, gives “structure to time,” then Meridi dissolves that structure. Time in her work flows like an enchanting spell, nonlinear and fluid. Each scene is an invocation. Her figures–whether fictional entities or archetypes pulled from dream–themselves seem barely tethered to earthly chronology. Their gestures, slow and hypnotic, exist in some plane between presence and disappearance.

There is an intimacy in Meridi’s Cosmology. Though vast in implication, Meridi’s worlds feel personal, hand-crafted, internal. She merges digital innovation with a kind of mythic intimacy. This tension–between the technological and the sacred–is where her brilliance lies. She doesn’t use video merely to depict; she uses it to uncover, to unearth. Her images are not answers, but riddles dressed in light.

In her work Synthetic Reflection, Meridi’s experiment with multi-media practice broadens this terrain. As viewers, we are offered more than images–we are immersed in layered textures of sound, sculpture, and narrative fragmentation. This extension into mixed media does not dilute her vision, rather it intensifies it. Meridi is not bound by the screen. She breaks its surface like a diver entering water, seeking what pulses beneath.

To watch a Meridi video is to risk transformation. Her art does not comfort, yet it raises questions and casts spells and shadows. The eye, always the eye, gazes not only from the screen but into us. What do we see, and what sees us?

More than a video artist Diana Meridi is a seeker, a mystic, a modern oracle in the garb of pixels and projections. Her art dares to ask not just what is real, but what reality hides. In an age of spectacle, she creates sanctuary. In a culture of noise, she conjures silence. And in that silence, the eye opens.

In Ruilin Fu’s artistic world, plants breathe, sculptures move, and stories unfold not through words alone, but through the subtle interplay of memory, migration, and embodied experience. Her interdisciplinary practice is a quiet yet powerful force—one that fuses feminist critique with technological experimentation, diasporic perspectives, and a deep commitment to care.

Her practice emerges from a transnational perspective, rooted in her Chinese origin and diasporic experience. Fu’s work resists easy categorization. Trained across visual arts and digital media, she navigates installation, sound, and interactive systems with the fluency of someone who sees no boundary between the poetic and the political. Her practice is deeply personal, but never isolated—it speaks to wider structures, systems, and histories, especially as they relate to gender, motherhood, and migration.

Grafting Memory and Identity

One of Fu’s most resonant projects, Grafting, takes inspiration from the horticultural technique of binding one plant to another. In her hands, grafting becomes a poignant metaphor for cultural hybridization, bodily adaptation, and the often-fractured process of belonging. The multimedia installation combines audio oral histories from immigrant families with animations of growing plant limbs—each branching sequence echoing the entwined lives and memories of those who have moved across borders.

Rather than offering a singular narrative, Grafting invites viewers into an experiential landscape, where stories are layered and non-linear. As audiences move through the space, they are drawn into a web of sound, motion, and organic forms—each suggesting how memory takes root in the body and how displacement reshapes identity at every level.

Rethinking the Maternal Body

Fu’s exploration of motherhood is equally layered. In  Mama I, a gently inflating and deflating sculpture breathes with uncanny rhythm, evoking a maternal form that is neither static nor symbolic, but alive, present, and political. The piece directly challenges traditional patriarchal ideals of motherhood—those that sanitize, romanticize, or silence the maternal experience.

Her follow-up work, Mama II, uses the growth patterns of plants to reflect on intergenerational inheritance: the ways care can both nurture and confine, protect and harm. The sculptural forms suggest regeneration but not without tension, as new branches emerge from old ones, evoking inherited trauma and the uneasy hope of renewal.

These pieces represent a growing body of work that fuses feminist theory with experimental technology, reshaping how maternal bodies are seen, understood, and politicized in contemporary art.

Feminism Across Borders

Fu’s exhibitions reflect a global conversation. From A Room of One’s Own (Safe House, 2022), to In Tandem (Cookhouse Gallery, 2023), to the community-centered show The Big Other and the Little Other (Torriano Meeting House, 2024), she consistently brings diasporic and feminist voices into spaces where they are often peripheral. Her works create conditions for intimacy and resistance to coexist—offering moments of quiet reflection amid urgent critique.

What makes Fu’s art so compelling is its ability to hold complexity without collapsing it. She does not reduce identity to a slogan or emotion to spectacle. Instead, her practice carves out space—both physical and conceptual—for contradiction, ambiguity, and vulnerability.

A Quiet Revolution

At a time when cultural narratives are increasingly polarized, Ruilin Fu’s work reminds us that personal stories are not small. They are sites of resistance, archives of survival, and catalysts for change. Her art does not shout—but it breathes, grows, and listens. And in doing so, it invites us to imagine different ways of being together, across borders, generations, and worlds.

Tranquillum 2025, the second annual international online exhibition organized by Gallerium, officially opened to the public on May 28, 2025, and will run through July 28, 2025. Selected through a two-phase jurying process, the featured artworks explore themes of tranquility and emotional harmony. All selected works are also showcased on Artsy.net, one of the leading marketplaces for art, to expand global visibility and reach.

As of June 4, the exhibition has received 14,190 unique visits, and some artworks have received comments and/or ratings. Among them, Jie Dai’s “City Oasis” received a five-star review, stating:

“How open and calm the whole space feels, even with the tall buildings behind it! There’s a kind of simplicity in the way it’s drawn that makes it easy to take in. The trees are full and colorful, and the way they’re spaced lets you see all the little paths, bridges, and the water quietly moving through. It feels like the drawing is imagining a quiet green spot right in the middle of the city, where design and nature are working together instead of competing. I think this isn’t just about a garden, but about carving out a quiet place where city and nature don’t cancel each other out.” – Elliot

This perfectly aligns with our understanding of the work. “City Oasis” creates a healing space within a dense urban setting. “City life can be intense and fast-paced, with people constantly on the move just to make a living”, Jie Dai said, “in such environments, individuals are often overwhelmed by stress, disconnection from nature and generally overloaded with little time or space to pause, reflect, or simply breathe.” “City Oasis” responds to this condition with quiet urgency. Through the subtle interplay of natural and structural elements, it establishes a gentle, visual rhythm that invites psychological release and an emotional reset. Rather than merely illustrating serenity, Dai’s work quietly generates it, offering a zone of pause and restoration in the fast-paced modern city.

Among all selected artworks, Dai’s hand-drawn piece is the only one created using a combination of color pencils and markers. Its soft palette and spatial sensitivity stood out, offering a fresh aesthetic for the exhibition. The drawing blends gentle layering with architectural clarity, merging artistic vision with landscape design expertise to deliver a physically accessible yet contemplative experience.

Jie Dai is a Chinese landscape designer based in Chicago, USA, known for her vibrant and depictive hand-drawing style and her contributions to urban design and landscape projects in the states of Illinois and New York. She served as one of the lead designers for large-scale green infrastructure projects such as the Veterans Memorial Tollway (Interstate 355) and the Central Tri-State Tollway (Interstate 294) which were part of the overall Tree Planting Initiative project for the Illinois Tollway. She also played a leading role in urban design and landscape projects that included the 87th and Roberts Road Bridge Project in Hickory Hills, Illinois and the Bailey Green redevelopment project in Buffalo, New York. These works reflect her integrated approach to urban spatial design, ecological sensitivity, and visual storytelling.

In addition to Tranquillum 2025, Jie Dai has been invited to participate in two other international exhibitions and one international art magazine:

Exhibition No. 1: Future – 2025 (May 31 – July 31, 2025)
Jie Dai’s work “The Circle Land” is featured in this juried exhibition organized by Exhibizone, which explores the passage of time, transformation, and visionary futures. The piece reflects on evolving human to nature relationships within a shifting temporal landscape. The piece immediately caught our attention for its thoughtful spatial composition and conceptual clarity. Organized through a system of concentric circles and arcs, the layout divides the park into smaller zones distributed across inner and outer rings. The composition evokes the visual rhythm of ripples while integrating accessible pathways, varied seating, play areas, a water feature, and seasonal plantings. Balancing formal clarity with ecological softness, the work envisions a healing and inclusive environment embedded within the everyday urban fabric.

Exhibition No. 2: Elysium – 2025 (June 4 – August 4, 2025)
Jie Dai’s work “Lattice Plaza” is featured in Elysium – 2025, an international juried exhibition organized by Gallerium exploring artistic visions of Elysium—a state of harmony, beauty, and serenity. Rooted in a modular grid, the design weaves planting, paving, and focal points into a contemplative spatial rhythm, evoking a sense of peaceful order and quiet joy. A red gate structure serves as a ceremonial “visual pause,” anchoring the composition while marking moments for reflection. Each spatial fragment is carefully articulated with distinct landscape gestures, evoking a quiet sense of spirituality. Whether for meditation, release, healing, or rest, the work offers a calm and contemplative retreat within the intensity of the urban fabric.

Magazine: Artistonish Magazine – May 2025 Issue
“Lattice Plaza” is also featured in the 58th issue of Artistonish Magazine, an international contemporary art publication produced by Discover the Artist Media, with artist profiles supported by Biafarin. The magazine showcases significant artworks by artists worldwide through digital and print formats. Each selected work is presented on a full-color A4 page alongside artist information, extending Dai’s creative narrative into editorial platforms and enriching her spatial storytelling.

Overall, Jie Dai’s work highlights her strong ability to translate conceptual vision into immersive, experience-driven landscape design through the precise use of geometric layering and spatial rhythm. Her vision shows that thoughtful design can create not only physical spaces, but moments of stillness that restore the human spirit.

Jie Dai’s work gently reminds us that even in the busiest cities, there is space for rest, reflection, and quiet beauty. Her featured works can be explored through the online exhibitions linked below.