The experience with Dazed was certainly a highlight. "It was really exciting to see my work be interpreted by someone else," Li exclaims with trademark enthusiasm, "but still capture my thoughts and aesthetic perfectly!"

Quite careful when it comes to press, on one hand to avoid his pieces being seen as fashion accessories, and on the other to avoid the tendency to see the exposure of transexuality as a passing fad rather than as a sign of cultural awakening. His hope is that, after features such as the Dazed shoot, he will be able to spread his work and ideas more widely, and commissions for "a very famous Lady pop star" have followed suit.

Avoiding negative press is  body sculpture is the final manifestation of , he says, "a long creative process - from concept through to drawing, macquette building, technical research - not to forget the worrying, construction nightmares, kiln melt-downs and the like."

Indeed Li's is a complex practice, encompassing a range of materials and techniques, from ceramics, clay, different types of plastics, to human performers, each requires expertise and intuition, thought and action. This is what makes Philip Li's works truly eclectic.

"Germination: The Avant-Garden Body-Sculptures", was a live-sculpture performance created for LuckyPDF and filmed in the Barbican Conservatory. One of Li's most intriguing projects yet, it conveys the essence of his philosophy: the concept of the "sculptural body", a meeting point for different lines and ideas and components, free of any gender-constricting fashions and existing politics. "My body-sculptures aren't 'fashion' - but they do share similar notions of identity and escapism."

Intent on overcoming the current streams of thought and creating his own set of meanings; Li' ambitions aims find inspiration in artists such as Andy Warhol, Matthew Barney and Bjork, who have all pushed the boundaries of their genres, creating "worlds within worlds". And pop music, which he adimts to being obsessed and fascinated by, especially Lady Gaga, who he says is "creating her world in our real cultural time... like a pop cultural definition of Beuy's social sculptures."

Li's all-encompassing curiosity has led him to collaborate with his cousin, jewellery designer Maria Lau, whose brand he re-launched through the introduction of male wearers and the reviving of her web presence. The result is a series of minimal and clean images, giving exposure to the jewels and showing how Li's sculptural approach can effectively apply to other practices.

Not the first collaboration: most of Li's works have been created with the support of friends and fellow artists from the South London scene, in keeping with his ideas of art as an intensive intimate process, which can only but benefit from the contribution of the loved ones.

Watch out for his forthcoming solo show and future performance art pieces, in which he hopes to introduce music and increase the scale, he likes the sound of a engaging with a show-stopping spectacle sculptures with fireworks. "Everyday life is my 'new exhibition' though - for now anyhow!"

Keep an eye on Li's ascent through his jotta profile,  his website or Twitter - @iamphilipli.

See his collaboration with Maria Lau here www.marialau.co.uk/