Weeding it out

An artist's ongoing Beijing show reveals both his global vision and rich experience, Lin Qi reports.

Li Heng has been painting weeds for the past eight years. His obsession is reflected in his many pieces, where a vast variety of weeds appears sometimes against a dull sky or rain clouds.

But the 39-year-old artist, who now lives and works in Munich, doesn't consider himself to be a landscape painter. He revisits the subject time and again as he seeks to communicate with viewers his struggles in the art world, his perceptions of sufferings in society and the hope he holds for the future.