Awash with ideas

Ye Funa

For artist Ye Funa, she can't imagine how she would survive without the internet now that both her life and art are so closely interconnected.

Ye launched her signature artwork Nail Project on her WeChat account. She originally planned to assemble some ideas for fingernail art in 2014 and called on her friends to offer their input.

Her call was answered with such passion that she was completely caught off guard as thousands of people offered their own creative ideas as the topic went viral across social media.

In 2015, the artist started to conduct performance art online by tapping into the rising popularity of live steaming. Entitled Peep Stream, Ye broadcast several performance art shows that would normally have taken place in a theater live on the internet, drawing tens of thousands of views from ordinary people who had probably never seen such a show.

"My art focuses on pop culture and the public aesthetic," says Ye, 32, who is also a teacher with the experimental art school of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

"The internet is just a tool for me to bridge the divide between the public and art," Ye explains.

She also paints, creates installations and makes videos. The artist refuses to limit the definition of her art to a single medium.