Wenhua Shi pursues a poetic approach to moving image making, and investigates conceptual depth in film, video, interactive installations and sound sculptures. His work has been presented at museums, galleries, and film festivals, including International Film Festival Rotterdam, European Media Art Festival, Athens Film and Video Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Pacific Film Archive, West Bund 2013: a Biennale of Architecture and Contemporary art, Shanghai, Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism, and the Arsenale of Venice in Italy.

In the early 1960ies, a number of filmmakers emerged in the United States and Europe to produce remarkable films that challenged any previous formal tendency in avant-garde filmmaking. The Structuralist filmmakers— including Peter Kubelka, Tony Conrad, Paul Sharits, and Kurt Kren––arranged their shots according to mathematical principles, attempting to produce non-narrative and non-illusionist films to oppose the cinematic apparatus.