Chance, agency and destiny: video, performance and photography work by Liao Wenfeng
In this show Liao Wenfeng presents an interesting cluster of themes revolving around existence and man’s ability to change his fate. He begins by exploring the impact society has on the individual and the role that chance and fate play in our lives, he then takes this further examining how the individual tries to impact the world (both the human world and natural environment). Still, more often than not, his works seem to prove that such attempts are ultimately futile.
Liao probes these questions by inserting himself into various situations in order to change how we see objects and how we see the world. Liao’s oeuvre covers performance, video and photography and his practice often revolves around interaction, involvement or intervention. Thus the idea of a “gesture” as a movement or action with either benign or oftentimes symobolic meaning seemed fitting.
On choosing this title, we realized that many of Liao’s works actually employ hands as a motif. For instance the cover image of this book, a drawing entitled “Speculative Gesture” 2010, features sketchily depicted hand thrust out in what looks like a Nazi salute, only that between the two fingers is a six-sided die. The salute which was originally a call to victory “sig heil” was later adopted to other forms “heil Hitler,” “heil” or simply a silent non-verbal gesture. The addition of the die takes this gesture of absolute certainty and adds an element of uncertainty – thus nullifying the power of this fascist symbol, but at the same time causing us to reflect on how fascist movements can create chaos for their populations leaving individuals vulnerable to fate and chance.
The motif also comes up again in “Dice on the Road” 2011, a video piece which features a small tower of dice placed precariously on a road at the mercy of pedestrian traffic and cars. A narrow depth of focus blurs the lines on the crosswalk so that we are prevented from clearly seeing what is coming and going – this sense of blindness acts as an interesting metaphor for life’s instabilities and uncertainties.
These themes of vulnerability and change are reiterated in the video work “Flower Tree Village” 2006 – a piece which straddles the boundary between documentary and performance art. In this work Liao documents the changes to his village in Jiangxi, when the government decides to implement beautification project called the “New Rural Construction Movement.” A former ancestral hall is renovated, villagers’ kitchens are demolished in order to accommodate a road and all of the livestock are herded into the houses of the villagers to sweep away any traces of backwardness.
The artist documents this process in a documentary style, but this narrative is then juxtaposed with a story of his own creation. He creates a performance consisting of planting a line of trees along the length of the river creating an almost Haussmann-esque boulevard, only the perspective point created by the line of trees leads to nowhere. Between the trees a group of villagers play chess and listen to music as if they were in a public park or square. This absurd gesture also brings up the theme of temporality (as we know this row of trees will either die or be swept into the river) and it’s a theme the artist revisits in later works.
It’s obvious that Liao’s interventions or “improvements” actually provide very little benefit to the villagers just like the widening of the street, it was a symbolics gesture. But what is left after the official visit, when the government sedans rumble off into the distance?
In a similar vein, the performance video, “Flea” 2011, explores this concept of man’s struggles with his surroundings depicting a figure dressed in blue boxing shorts pummeling a giant concrete pillar (the kind which supports several different branches of a freeway) with his fists until he becomes thoroughly exhausted. This Sisyphusian struggle explores the idea of man fighting against things which cannot change and presents such protests as being futile. “In the Flowering Shrubs” 2011, continues in the same vein of absurdity with an image of a fist thrusting out of the oleander like some kind of quiet – practically inaudible – protest. The effect is more humorous than a call to arms.
“No Waves at All” 2008, a photograph of the artist diving into a sea of shrubs, shares the same sense of the absurd – of using mundane surroundings to do extraordinary things. Here Liao is at once challenging us to transcend our circumstances in society, but at the same time offering us a rueful smile as if to say such attempts are wholeheartedly foolish. In fact in doing this performance, Liao ended up hurting his legs when the shrubs splintered under his weight upon landing.
He takes this irony a step further in “To Fulfill Your Duties as a Citizen, Choose One (or More) Shade of Green You Like, from AL130-AL169” 2008, a photograph of a person hiding behind a rock holding up a pantone color palette with various shades of green. The work references the practice of “green washing” and the overuse of the word green (green food, green clothing, green architecture) in today’s political and consumer culture – one just thinks of the billboards around town which say things like “Love Our Green Changning” “Or “Love Our Green Putuo.” The ridiculous gesture of “choosing a color” underlines our powerlessness in terms of really changing the natural environment. How we fall back on our role as consumers, choosing bamboo flooring or organic vegetables, without being prepared to make any large sacrifices.
“Dust Transfer” 2011, picks up on this idea of artifice vs. reality in regards to nature with an image of Japanese Aralia growing in what has now become its natural habitat – China’s flyovers. The bushes are heavily coated in dust except for one brilliant green leaf which has been wiped clean by the artist. A separate image features the artist’s hand covered in dust, thus illustrating both cause and effect but drawing attention to the large quantities of particulate mater which result in the dismal grey color of the leaves.
Many of Liao’s “gestures” involve slightly changing an object so that we may see it in a different way, for instance in “The Backside of an Apple” 2011, he’s inserted shards of mirror into apples so that we see them reflected from different angles. The result is an almost punk aesthetic, as if the apple is sporting a Mohawk. Here the pert and cheery apple looks at once threatening but at the same time victimized.
Similarly in “Dusty Spiral” 2011, he’s taken an ordinary pile of dust and arranged it into the shape of a spiral – making a mocking reference to Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty.” Meanwhile another miniature earthwork “Stones” 2011, involves a small tower of stones piled on a railroad tie, almost like a vertical version of a Richard Long statue. While the works of Long and Smithson would take decades to degrade, Liao’s are at the whim of human actions. Here man is in complete control of his environment – a god-like figure who can chose to be merciful or destroy anything he pleases.
This premise comes full circle in the video “Morning Helsinki” 2011, where we see man stripped of all his power. The video depicts a cemetery filled with cold granite stones lit sideways by a swath of peach-colored light. In this morning mist, a number of small animals (birds, squirrels and rabbits) go about their business. There is something about the finality of the solid grey tombstones and the soft, cuddly, fragility of the animals that presents a tangible contrast between the worlds of the living and the dead – showing us that they are really not so far away at all.
Here Liao presents us with a deeply philosophical body of work, which asks existential questions about life and man’s role in the world. Heidegger felt that our misunderstandings and twisting of reality lead us to believe that we are masters of our destiny when actually we are only weak elements with a very limited capacity to change our world. Should we be lead along by fate or “wuwei” as Daoists believe or should we pound our fists against a giant pillar in the middle of a highway interchange? Which strategy would you be willing to put money on?
