Spirits summoned for artist's abstract discourse

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.

To Liu, this represents a gateway linking the present and the after world.

"Going through the gate you are in an unknown world, but once out of it you are back in the present," she said.

For another project, she burned rice paper with incense then brushed these marks to form abstract images.

"I didn't have in mind a specific picture or image. It's more like responding to the flow of energy," she said about her work in general.

Another abstract painting on four separate boards looks like flowing air, or fishes swimming in groups. Each of the boards took her two weeks to complete.

One of the biggest surprises of the show is a large project occupying the whole of the third-floor exhibition space. Liu tied a knot on one end of a red thread and twisted it into a coil, with a sharp needle piercing the center. Then she hung the delicate structure from the ceiling. The installation comprises 1,200 similar coils hanging just off the floor, moving to striking effect courtesy of the room's air conditioning.

In Chinese folklore, an old man in the moon takes charge of love and relationships by tying a red thread between two person's wrists.

"To a Western audience this is simply a nice art work featuring the color red," Liu said.

Liu now lives in Austen, Texas, and teaches art the University of Texas.

Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center

Until Sept 20, 10 am - 6:30 pm (Tuesday to Friday); 1:30 pm - 6:30 pm (Weekend)

299 Fuxing Road W.

复兴中路299号

Tel: 6466-7428

(China Daily 08/22/2009 page14)