Li Hui

From Asian Art Documentation

Born in 1977 in Beijing

Now residing in Beijing

Group Exhibitions:

2006 Busan Biennial, Naru Park

2005 Chengdu Biennial, Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum

2004 Playing with Chi Energy, House Of Shiseido, Tokyo

2003 Driftage, Back Modern City, Beijing

2002 International City Sculpture Exhibition, Beijing Sculpture Park

Li Hui’s artistic concepts are always closely related to his experiment with design. The power of his daring, creative works is often generated by the bold juxtaposition of two identical or seemingly unrelated objects. In his most recent works, Chinese Zither and Amber, shown at the Biennale, the artist is not concerned with the mere form of sculpture, but something outside the object’s material existence. The spectacular piece Amber, literally, the fossil resin formed in the course of forty to sixty million years, touches upon the concept of “Future Constructs of History.” He creates a piece of amber that contains a spaceship and a dinosaur skeleton. In Chinese Zither, the artist turns the aircraft carrier model upside down and transforms the military device into a musical instrument. The zither strings, reminiscent of flying bullets, further blurs the boundary between the military and the musical, the powerful and the soft. This unsettling mix suggests a broader spectrum through which to interpret the relationship between East and West, war and peace.