Auther / Tao Xinqi

According to the New Testament, in John 11, Jesus’s follower and friend Lazarus could not wait for Jesus to come treat him and died of disease, and was buried in a cave. Jesus told him to rise again, and after four days Lazarus miraculously came back to life and left the cave.

Lazarus, as LIU Wen’s first solo exhibition, takes its name from the Bible and presents her artistic practice and transformation during her stay in the US the past few years. The context of her works shown in the exhibition is deeply rooted in the culture clash that the young generation of Chinese artists have been experiencing. These works demonstrate how the artists distinctively convey and interpret their experience when faced with different cultures under globalization, and simultaneously explore the limitations and possibilities in such shifting environments through art-making.

《113小时56分钟》，乳胶、纱布，56×56cm，2016年

Taking “Rebirth”, “Preservation” and “Absence” as core concepts in her works, LIU Wen reforges used materials, selecting objects that reflect her profound life experiences – about complex feelings and emotions in human relationships, about something transformed from the “absence” in her personal history. At the same time, the form of ritual in the Western religions are present in her art. Considering both the context and concept of LIU’s works, this exhibition hopes to not only blaze a way for the audience to understand the inner world of the artist, but also to provide more possibilities of interpretation for this road to rebirth.

The exhibition starts from LIU Wen’s core part of creation. Lazarus 1, Lazarus 2, and Spears show how she seeks the language of materials and their narrative nature. The co-existence of retention and modifiability in these works merges the object with complex human feelings, enabling the works to become a rite of rebirth through such transformation. The work LIU Wen specifically made for this exhibition, in which she spent 113 hours and 56 minutes at abandoned churches in the US to produce latex molds, creates a way for the artist to connect the external history with herself. Meanwhile, using spatial arrangement and exhibition tone, the artist leads viewers to more individualized expressions such as Foundation, The Uncertain Pain and Lifeboat. With the goal of mastering the texture, features and limitations of the material, LIU Wen’s works reflect her self-analysis and restructuring under the context of cultural estrangement. The artist herself said: “Art allows me to constantly deconstruct the perception of my surroundings and emotions, and reconstruct the complexity and confusion of it.” And during this process, LIU Wen is the observer, as well as the specimen.

《Lazarus 2》，乳胶、金箔、旧家具腿，198×92×12cm，2016年

《不确定的疼痛》，旧衣物、木椅122×102×46cm，2015年