For National Geographic, Li took his source material from over 100 Google Earth images. Translating these jpegs into the language of paint, Li’s textured canvas refers to both digitisation and topographical maps, with fields of thick impasto replicating the gradations of land and water. Picturing the island of Taiwan, Li’s painting pushes the boundaries of abstraction, both visually and conceptually: The remote distance of satellite photos, paradoxically reproduced in Li’s highly physical and intimate style of painting, convert the map into a disorienting terrain, equally virtual and haptic.