李青 Li Qing

Exhibition view of Li Qing: Finding Together，F2 Gallery，Beijing

Exhibition period: September 9th till October 9th, 2006

Opening: Saturday, September 9th at 3 pm

Address: No.319 Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China 100015

Alienation by Images

By Zhu Zhu

Despite his recent breakthroughs in artistic language, the style of Li Qing’s art did not become defined until the series of works ‘Finding Together’. Since 2005 or so, he has been working continuously on the series. Metaphorically speaking, he has been building a small-scale labyrinth with these works. In his book The Labyrinth in Culture and Society, Jacques Attali wrote “Whoever has created the labyrinth, s/he has turned finiteness into almost infinity. S/he has stuffed limited space with unlimited time.” Seen from this wider perspective, all types of artistic creativity, in one way or another, resemble a labyrinth. And therefore gazing at a painting is somewhat like meandering inside a labyrinth.

As we all know, ‘Finding Together’ is a type of program which frequently appears on television. In this type of program, two very similar pictures are shown side by side on the screen, and the audience are asked to spot the differences between them in a short time. We are familiar with these games since childhood. The only difference is that they are now played on television with a material reward attached to the winning of the game. Li Qing adopts the format of the game and creates a series of vignettes of contemporary life. Hidden in the nuanced differences between the paired pictures is precisely what the artist wants to tell us. Or we could say that the artist has camouflaged himself, waiting to meet the viewer inside the paintings. Architectural similarity is the underlying principle of the design of the labyrinth. Every track, every corridor, wall and corner resembles one another. One easily loses one’s way amongst features that are hard to tell apart. The sense of confusion and disorientation also poses challenge to the pathfinder’s intellectual and emotional strength. The characteristics of architectural labyrinths are cleverly employed by Li Qing and applied to his pictorial labyrinths on paper. More importantly through his careful designs, the viewer is led to feel somehow split and disoriented by the images. Like a fork in a garden path, these images lead us onto different side paths. In the original game of Spotting the Differences，the paired paintings share the same space and time. In other words, the images of reality are of the same time. The game designer alter the details here and there to create some differences between the compared pair. Naturally the more the alterations can deceive the eye, the better the design. Li Qing’s works retain some of the stunts of the game, but they are a whole lot more than a game. He exercises the art of alienation with images. By making the images contradict themselves, he tries to lead us to reconsider the nature of reality, its deception, absurdity and hollowness. In the nuanced details of Li Qing’s art lies tremendous narrative tension that forces us to think. In this way, his paintings work both as games and satires. But they carry an even more important and essential significance, that is to contemplate and question the fundamentals of pictorial language. In modern art, this idea can be traced back to Belgian artist René Magritte; whereas in the oriental tradition, it undoubtedly comes from the ‘unconsciousness’.

At the earlier stage in the development of the series, the subject matter leaned toward concerns of everyday life. But the twelve sets of works chosen for this exhibition focus deliberately on historical memory and news of current affairs. In other words, having found a mode of artistic expression, he now wishes to release his artistic energy on a higher horizon and across wider selection of subjects. To an extent, this new direction takes away some of the pleasure deriving from viewing art about the mundane world. As Vladimir Nabokov put it, “Nothing is more exciting than vulgarity” (On Lolita) . In the paintings excluded from the exhibition, we can clearly see the environment of a contemporary life where the young artist lives. Group photos of graduates, the room of a single man, television news, the gloomy decay in front of his apartment block, stickers of cartoon characters around the screen of the computer monitor, sculptures in the street, the fire, teenage girls with tattoos hovering in the street at night. These help to draw our attention to the chaotic and fresh reality - now in the middle of transformation by the process of globalization. Perhaps the process of the art series’ development can be seen as a process of distanciation from the real life. By bringing in the historical dimension into his works, not only does the artist’s vision become broadened, but the essence or the ins and outs of the contemporary life also gets a chance for further delineation.

A rather mechanical way to group the displayed works according to their subject matters would put《Hero's Tomb》,《Imperial Concubine》,《Eminent Monk》,《Pagoda》,《Chairman》and《Mirror》together as the historical memory group. The contemporary life referred to in《Hero's Return》,《Convention》,《Big Shot》and《Soldiers》 focuses on politics and fashion; whereas《Pinball》and《I》have a hint on the artist’s personal life and are therefore more autobiographical.

“Whatever takes hard work to find brings us enormous pleasure.” Augustine’s words state the pith of game playing. In fact, our arts and literature often content themselves with surface descriptions of reality. Burdened with the weight of morality, they are unable to face the quality of game-playing in arts. But an aesthetic game is not unlike a journey of adventure in a labyrinth. It functions both as a way of catharsis and mental regeneration. Just imagine, the audience may initially be seduced by the material reward. But without realizing it, they may start to wander away from the surface pictorial differences once their curiosity has been satisfied. They may begin to delve into the problem of ‘Why are they different?’ In other words, the act of seeing is led astray. It is led straight into an intellectual dialogue.

If Magritte’s paintings are snapshots of unlikely events, then Li Qing’s works are fragments of everyday life and historical events, heritage sites, television news reports, sculptures in the street, and old photographs and so on. But their paintings share one tendency - they go beyond the gratification of narrative urge. In their works, phenomena are captured for the purpose of conveying metaphysical ideas and concerns. One of Li Qing’s earlier sets of works depicts a scene by a pavilion in the park. In the first painting, the photographer and the girl gaze into the distance on a set of steps assuming a similar posture. Another man and woman are shown to be sitting apart on the grass. Whereas in the second painting the man has stood up, touching the woman’s shoulder with one hand. The difference in this minute detail seems to trick the sense. The time in this section seems to be ahead of the rest of the painting. It could be a few seconds, a few minutes or even a few hours ahead. In any case, the situation is no longer the same. But apart from this detail, the scenes depicted in the two paintings seem to be happening at the same time. Once we are aware of the temporal disparity of this detail and return to look at the photographer and the gazing girl again, we begin to sense a hint of sluggishness in them. They appear to exist outside of time. On a second reflection, does time not slip by imperceptibly in the acts of photo-taking and gazing? Do they not make people oblivious of the environment around them? Or if we take a very different perspective, we can also interpret the detail of the couple sitting on the grass as a reflection of the man’s fantasy. While talking to the woman, he was actually fantasizing about having more intimate contact with her. In either case, a sense of estrangement looms out of the images.

Li Qing，Spot the Difference·Hero's Return (There are 8 differences in the two paintings)

oil on canvas 170 x 130 cm x 2 2005

In 《Hero's Return》, the astronaut protected by the guards is received by a welcoming crowd. In the first painting, he appears rigid, uneasy and overwhelmed by the scale of the event. In fact, he looks more like a criminal being marched to the execution ground. But in the second painting, he is shown to wave to the crowd and play the role of ‘hero’ with adeptness. We can almost begin to see the life he leads afterwards. He will be received by various top leaders and interviewed in television programs. In a succession of awarding ceremonies, speeches and briefings, he will become more and more experienced, relaxed and eloquent, so on and so forth. His self will be eroding. Whenever he looks at himself in the mirror, he will see a hero, a hero through and through. Via the contrast of images, the artist subtly reveals the process of hero-making. The truth is, deep in the space when the astronomer challenged the limit of mankind, he was indeed a hero. But as soon as he had landed and stepped onto the ground, he was turned into a propaganda tool, a politicised icon for advertisement. Whether or not the imitation is with awareness, his waving posture does seem to resemble that of Chairman Mao. In another set of works of the same series《Chairman》, Mao’s statue on a pedestal assumes exactly the same waving posture. This posture is a classic image of Mao in the Nation’s visual memory - as though he still stood on the Tiananmen Tower, proclaiming the establishment of People’s Republic of China, or receiving thousands of red guards during the Cultural Revolution. But the artist tries to plot a difference in this iconic gesture. Mao’s palm is painted in the shape of a hand gun. By doing so, he also instils a sense of violence in a solemn and imposing spiritual symbol. The replaced gesture evokes different kinds of historical memories – memories of civil war, memories of class struggles, as well as memories of total destruction.

In these works, there lies a deconstruction of ideology. Another two sets of works in the same series deal with a similar political subject matter.《Convention》 shows a scene of the recent six-party talks on the North Korea’s nuclear issue. On the second painting however, a few more details are added. These include a cone-shaped object pointing downward from the centre of the chandelier in the middle of the conference room, and a female attendant is added on the side of the room. These two details both carry sexual connotation. The cone-shaped object symbolises the penis, implying that politics is nothing but a sexual competition over power. The presence of the female attendant both confirms and strengthens this argument. In another set of work of the series《Hero's Tomb》, the inscription on Yue Fei’s tombstone is shown to have eroded. The character Song marking the name of the dynasty he lived has disappeared. On the surface level, it is about the tomb inscription eroding over time. But the implication is that any dynasty or any political regime will eventually recede into oblivion. The memory of these political entities does not even last as long as the memory of some individuals.

Li Qing，Spot the Difference·Big Shot (There are 5 differences in the two paintings)

oil on canvas 200 x 200 cm x 2 2006

When the subject matter turns to political issues, the artist’s style of expression seems to loosen up and begin to smack of mockery. In the work《Big Shot》, the Western star is shown to be surrounded by a crowd of beautiful women in the first painting. But in the second painting, a woman behind him rests her hand on his waist. In reality, it may be nothing more than a fleeting moment in the middle of an unintentional bodily movement. But when captured in the artist’s work, it becomes a significant gesture. This frozen moment can be interpreted as implying the secrecy of backdoor dealings in entertainment circle, for instance a fast track to success and fame by means of sexual exchanges.

Perhaps the work《Imperial Concubine》can be seen as the climax of the series of the game. In the first painting, the eminent monk Li Shutong is aged and his face wears a sorrowful expression with eyelids downcast. The second painting, in contrast, depicts a middle-aged monk, eyebrows relaxed and looking radiant and cheerful. Anyone familiar with the life of this eminent monk would have known that his last words before he passed away were “Joy mingled with sorrow.” This set of paintings is undoubtedly a pictorial interpretation of these words. But the effect of such a literal treatment of a consummate philosophical state - in which all flavours and experiences of life merge harmoniously into an integral whole - takes us by surprise. The two distinct expressions of the monk at different phases of life seem to split the integral whole into two contrasted parts. It is as if to suggest that far from the serenity on the surface, deep down in the monk’s inner world there is still an ongoing dialectics or struggle between the different sides of the saint’s self.

In these works, Li Qing is like a spy lurking in the labyrinth constructed with realities and memories. He pops out surreptitiously to lift the curtains that separate the inside from the outside, and the true from the false. The identical parts of paired paintings are in some way like the walls, corners and tracks in the labyrinth. They are nothing more than camouflage, waiting to be penetrated or seen through. Once you identify the camouflage, the artist will then reveal to you the ‘true nature of things’ shielded behind. By spotting the differences, the viewer is able to penetrate layers of blockades in real life and head toward the exit of the labyrinth. But be aware! The so-called ‘true nature of things’ is an image that has been separated out from reality by the artist himself through his effort of spying and identifying. It is a metaphor of truth, rather than truth itself. All images are tied with a specific subject matter. They become different facets that constitute the labyrinth. Through these alienated images, the artist attempts to reveal his understanding of truth to the viewer. By doing so, he tries to encourage us to exercise our intellectual imagination.

III

The dimension of time lies at the core of all artistic expressions. It is also my favorite aspect of this series of Li Qing’s works.

Li Qing，Spot the Difference·Mirror (There are 9 differences in the two paintings)

oil on canvas 170 x 130 cm x 2 2005

The pagoda in 《Pagoda》 can be read as a symbol of time. The dilapidated pagoda in the second painting testifies to the passage of time. People having their photographs taken in front of the pagoda have changed. Their clothes and expressions also suggest the change of time. In the work《I》, the scars on the face seems to record the psychological history of the young person in the portrait. For me, the most delicate and poetic treatment of the passage of time can be fount in the work 《Mirror》. This may well be the most flawless pair of paintings in the entire series.

These two paintings depict a corner of a courtyard, possibly somewhere in the south of the Yangzhe. The corner is hidden just behind a door. The door has probably fallen into decay, and possibly not shut. Or perhaps the walls of the courtyard have already collapsed, and now only fended off with a stretch of hedge or wire fence. In the past, it may have been the courtyard of a notable wealthy family. The estate was probably divided into separate accommodations for many families later. Hence the garden design was completely destroyed and no trace of the original artful garden can be seen now. The flower platform is demolished, carved lattice windows and doors discarded during the ‘Destroy the Four Olds’ period, or probably used as fire wood and burned to ashes. There could have been a well in the courtyard, but sealed after someone committed suicide by jumping into the well out of desperation. It would not have been sealed to commemorate the dead, but to avoid inauspicious influences brought about by the tragedy. The courtyard has already lost its old charm. Nothing but the plants – old trees, climbing vines, flowers and weeds – have managed to escape the onslaught of history. They seem to bring back the memory of the old days.

The formal arrangement of this pair reminds me of Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow Up. If we see the courtyard as a fragment of the historical change, then what the artist does is to magnify a fragment of a fragment of history. In the same way as the leading character in Antonioni’s film solves a murder case in the park with the help of the details of a photograph, Li Qing has solved a murder case in history. In the flux of time, the old world has sunk into decay and oblivion. Part of that old world remains with us today, but part of it is gone forever. The intricate and subtle amalgam of emotions and thoughts that arise when we reminisce about this period of history is truthfully captured in these paintings. Interestingly, when these two pictures are placed side by side and compared, they seem to evoke a far longer stretch of historical transition than the time lapse suggested by the actual differences in their details. Here are some signs of change in the paintings: the widening crevices on the wall, the displacement of a drain on the ground, the mark of a sticky tape on the dressing table, different footmarks reflected on the fuzzy mirror surface, as well as a window frame without a window. Wild flowers and weeds climb over the edge of the concrete plant trough, sprawling outward, just as the effect of time takes over the whole courtyard bit by bit, day by day.

If we use mirror as a metaphor, then the corner of the courtyard is a shard of the mirror mottled by dirt and scratches. The image reflected by it appears distorted and fuzzy, however at the same time, its reflection of the trace of time cannot be clearer.

Ⅳ

When images betray our vision, not only are they pointing out the illusive nature of reality, they are also rebelling against painting as a way of expression. As we all know, painting as an expressive language is full of falsity and misconceptions. It is not an entirely trustworthy medium. In his famous work The Treachery of Images, René Magritte pits the images on painting firmly against reality. Li Qing is undoubtedly influenced by this idea, but he prefers a relation of seduction, rather than irrevocable rupture, between images and reality.

‘View borrowing’ is an important principle in Chinese garden design. Using a window to borrow the shadows of trees, using a pond to borrow the light of the sky, using a pavilion to borrow the scene of distant hills, all these methods allow us to achieve unlimited enjoyment within a confined and limited space. In a sense, gardens have the characteristics of labyrinths. In Jorge Luis Borges’s fiction The Garden of Forking Paths, his imagination of a labyrinth-like Chinese garden serves to tie together different space and time. This series of Li Qing’s works remind me of the idea of view borrowing. He uses principles of a game to accommodate all possibilities of history and reality in his paintings, and endow them with a spiritual dimension. On the one hand, the artistic format reflects the artist’s wit and mischief, sensitivity and reasoning capability. On the other hand, it also replaces the almost violent uncompromising attitude of Western Surrealism with a gentler Oriental one. In his latest series《Images of Paradox: Contradictory yet Unified》，we will see even more radical and creative reflections on pictorial language from the artist.

As we know, the beauty of labyrinth lies in its difficulty. Intellectual reasoning provides artists with a way to surpass themselves. The path is full of treacherous diversions, dead ends and fortuity. Perhaps he has thought over the issue carefully when he decided to follow the path. Or perhaps the outcome is hidden in his works《Pinball》. When I asked him what a number shown on the pinball board signified, he replied,

“Yes, it means scoring. If you press the button, the light will start to turn and gradually come to a stop. If it stops at some points, the machine will spill out coins. At other points, you get to play a few more rounds. But at most points, you get nothing. ”

August 2006

Tr. by Philip Tinari and Denis Mair

liqingstudio@qq.com