CITY GUIDE >Culture and Events
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CITY GUIDE >Culture and Events
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Shanghai:Spirits summoned for artist's abstract discourse
By Zhang Kun (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-22 13:30
 Invoking Chinese burial ceremonies with counterfeit "spirit money", or human relationships with symbolic red threads, Liu Beili uses her allegorical installation art to discuss such weighty topics as interpersonal relations and the afterlife. Although a recognized artist in the Unites States, the Chinese-American artist is still finding her way in China and as such is now having her first solo exhibition here at the Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center. Critic Janet Koplos praised her works for being "materially simple but metaphorically rich" (Art in America Review, April 2009), while local gallery director de Brabant said the focus was more on East-West ties. "Her art is very much about the process and her works are deeply entrenched in a dialogue between Eastern and Western cultural and moral codes, addressing her personal journey from China to the United States as a young adult," she said. On the second floor of the exhibition hall, Liu formed a giant circle using "spirit money", or fake notes that Chinese burn so their ancestors can spend it in the life hereafter. She rolled the notes into tight bundles and burned half of them black to create an overall image resembling the traditional taiqi symbol of yin and yang. |
