Li Liao x Chao Jiaxing

Duration: 2016. October 21 – November 6
Venue: 3F, CREATER SPACE, No.888 Huashan Road, Shanghai

Presenting: Li Liao, 3-Part Video Compilation

A Slap in Wuhan, Single-channel digital video, 2010, 5’09”
A Single Bed No. 1 (Optics Valley), Single-channel digital video, 2011, 24’02”
Spring Breeze, Single-channel digital video, 2011, 126’39”

Artwork Introduction

In A Slap in Wuhan the artist stood in the entrance of the Optics Valley Pedestrian Street with his eyes closed, waiting for a volunteer whom he had found online to come slap him. The artist kept his eyes closed until the volunteer left. The end.

In A Single Bed No. 1, the artist cleaned up an area the size of a bed on the floor of a public space. He slept there until he woke up naturally or until someone else woke him up. This performance has been enacted four times in total, in the following settings: Optics Valley Pedestrian Street, an enclosed ATM, on the grass by the lake, and a small playground.

For Spring Breeze the artist loitered outside an office building in Wuhan. Li asked someone working in the building to chain him into a bike lock at the start of the day, and to release him when they finished.

About the Artist

Li Liao was born in 1982 in Hubei, China. He graduated from Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, with a BA in 2005. Li aims to expose the social complexities in simple environments that appear rote and mundane by asking pressing questions about expectations and reality in his multi-media installations and performances.