Sunday, August 3, 2008

Li Wei - Impossible Photography

A contemporary artist from Bejing. His work often depicts him in apparently gravity-defying situations.

“No, these images are not computer montages,” the artist confirms. Sometimes he worked with the help of props in the literal sense of the word. But for him the main thing was physical exertion, the experience – be it brief – of keeping a posture up and of feeling the absurdity of the situation through his own body. “If you picture someone falling to earth from another planet… it would really be no soft landing in the sense of a happy moment, whether the landing were in China or in another part of the world: It’s crazy what we do to one another.

“A Pause for Humanity” (2005) show the artist with his wife and baby in a situation giving the impression that they are about to leap to their deaths. Only their calm faces are reassuring. Especially the first photo of this performance series, on which Li hovers with his head fastened to one of the steel girders above his family, shows clearly that the situation is also meant to be symbolic and full of pathos, as suggested by the title. Even if details of the scene seem rather surreal, Li manages through these artful interventions to make very precise statements about what it means in the present day – and not only in swiftly changing China – to preserve the ” sanctuary called family”. “There is a feeling of losing a grip on things, an uncertainty about the morrow. It’s a feeling of hanging in the air, of having nothing firm under the feet. And even if the family is my priority and thus a key part of my performances, I wonder: How much are we able to put up with?”


From an interview with the author in April 2006

Author: Ulrike Münter
















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