• LI WEIYI Associated Image Author/ Li Weiyi When Liu Gang, the curator, said that what he wanted to contribute to...

    LI WEIYI

    Associated Image

     

    Author/ Li Weiyi

     

    When Liu Gang, the curator, said that what he wanted to contribute to this whole project was a kind of thinking closer to the origin of images, I realized that what I could provide and present might be the power beyond "photographic image", something more than "shooting" and "recording". Specifically, it's the power to make images mutate and go viral on the Internet: the power to make them change while constantly replicating themselves. In this constant change, something new can be born.
     
    That's why I picked these two works for the exhibition: The Family Album Project II and Wives because they are both explorations of the dissemination and transformation of images.
     
    The Family Album Project II project began in 2012. It changed and spread in various ways over the next decade. It began as an online installation based on group photos commonly seen in family photo albums. This kind of photograph shows a monumental form and a desire for the collective. I strengthened this strong visual grammar by converting all of the group photos in my family album into seamless images, a technique commonly used in website design. By using simple HTML code, the crowd in each photo was transformed into an endless sea of people .
     
    This exhibition is a ten-year retrospective of the project. During this time, I have collaborated with institutions such as schools, galleries, clothing brands, and record labels; consequently, this work has been incorporated into a variety of products, including wallpaper, books, record covers, clothing, and bags. I am more concerned with each individual's visual preference than with discovering a specific visual artistic language. The group photo is a well-known pictorial pattern, a visual technique that is commonly employed and even overlooked. I attempt to purify this widely used method and allow its power to reach its maximum potential.
     
    Another piece I chose was Wives. I took this group of photos for a social event and posted it on Weibo. Within a week, the number of hits on this post soared, and the number of views reached 2.3 million. So far, more than 4.2 million people have viewed it.
     
    If the data speaks for itself, this is my most widely known piece. But I am wary of this number. I understand why many artists are reluctant to get involved in trending topics or topics indicating assertive opinions. Because fans of this type of work often have a preference for the artist's standpoint and are unwilling to understand or criticize the work itself. There are certain easily misunderstood concepts weaved into the discussion of this sort of work.
     
    For me, the importance of this piece is on another scale. I never mentioned any specific words related to the event in this post. But in the nearly 9,000 reposts, there are a lot of sentences describing it from the narrative perspective I provided, to express grief and anger, such as "No way you can buy it in a grocery store. It's definitely picked up on the street" or "It's a hairpin with periodontitis". They made me realize what "narrative completion" means.
  • ARTIST: Li Weiyi Li Weiyi is an artist weiyi.li, designer weiyiandfriends.com, curator bigbadgallery.com, publisher re-publication.com and retailor currently-available.com who lives...

    ARTIST: Li Weiyi

     

    Li Weiyi is an artist weiyi.li, designer weiyiandfriends.com, curator bigbadgallery.com, publisher re-publication.com and retailor currently-available.com who lives and works between these five URLs.

     

     

  • CURATOR: Liu Gang He is a curator and artist who graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. As a...

    CURATOR: Liu Gang

     

    He is a curator and artist who graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. As a curator and the director of “the PIN projects”, Liu builds on the achievement with a global outlook. He is committed to promote cultural exchanges between Europe and China through the cultural brand “the PIN projects”.  
    Major exhibitions curated by him at home and abroad include: SUNIVERSE - Opening Exhibition of Hall of The Sun Ruihong Tiandi (2021); From the Mundane World - Inaugural Exhibition of the He Art Museum (2020) ;Now Is the Time - 2019 Wuzhen Contemporary Art Exhibition (2019); Breaking Boundaries - BAZAAR's 150th Anniversary Fashion&Art Exhibition (2017); Visual Questions - Young Artists' Vision and Experiences (2017) ; Utopias/Heterotopias - Wuzhen International Contemporary Art Exhibition (2016); We May Have Met Before - Chinese Contemporary Photography (2015) ; The Future of Fashion is Now (2016); SUN JIE & JIE SUN Contemporary Jewelry Exhibition (2015); Now is the Time - BCG&Magnum Photos Present (2015); Next City Living Lab: The Nurturing House - Beijing International Design Week (2015); Work, Rest and Play - British Photography from the 1960s to Today (2015); Still / Life - Contemporary Dutch Photography (2015); Self / Unself - Dutch Contemporary Design (2014-2015); The Dutch Program for 2014 Beijing Design Week (2014).
    His artistic/design activities include: Musicians in Residence Exhibition (2019); Catch The Light - China Xi'an “The Belt and Road” International Light Festival (2018); The Imagined Future is Not the Future - OCT-LOFT Creative Festival (2017); Boundary of Light - Sea World International Light Festival (2016); Taikoo Li Light Festival 2016  (2016); Toward 2050: Developing a Sino - Dutch Approach for Sustainable Urbanization (2014).
  • Li Weiyi, Wives series, 2022. Giclée Print, 22 X 33cm. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Li Weiyi, Wives series, 2022. Giclée Print, 22 X 33cm. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Li Weiyi, Wives series, 2022. Giclée Print, 22 X 33cm. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Li Weiyi, Wives series, 2022. Giclée Print, 22 X 33cm. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Li Weiyi, Family Album Project II, 2022. UV print, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Li Weiyi, Family Album Project II, 2022. UV print, dimensions variable.. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Li Weiyi, Family Album Project II, 2022. UV print, dimensions variable.. Courtesy of the artist.