Class connotation: Liu Wei’s 'Silver' at White Cube, Hong Kong

 Liu Wei’s ’Silver’ at White Cube, Hong Kong
The acclaimed Beijing-based artist Liu Wei has a new show at White Cube in Hong Kong, entitled ’Liu Wei: Silver’
(Image credit: Liu Wei and White Cube)

Hong Kong’s current love affair with contemporary Chinese art continues with a freshly unveiled solo exhibition of mirrored sculptures, collage and a ‘shape-shifting’ video by the Beijing-based artist Liu Wei, at the city's White Cube outpost.

The artist has been producing interesting works for the past 15 years, not least with his sensational Looks Like a Landscape, 2004 – a large-format black and white photograph of what seemed like a traditional Chinese mountain scene but is, in fact, a landscape of naked bottoms. His new show builds upon an exhibition at UCCA Beijing earlier this year with a refined yet unconventional examination of the symbolism of everyday urban materials.

The highlight of the exhibition is Puzzle, an abstract assemblage of enormous organically-shaped mirrors creating an intriguing sculptural enclosure while simultaneously playing with our notions of perception.

On the same ground floor of the gallery are two Crucifixion collages; works that the artist created by draping sheets of steel over delicate metal rods to form an abstract cross-like shape. Liu says he prefers to work with easily available, cheap industrial materials that have a ‘class connotation’. ‘They are natural to this artificial urban environment,’ he explains.

Sharing the same ground floor space is a colourful video work – Shapeshifting – inspired by the neon advertising of urban environments, providing a striking counterpart to the predominantly neutral silver art pieces nearby.

The theme of silver ‘formally orchestrates the whole show’, says Liu.  ‘Everything is related to it one-way or the other. It also reflects the colonial history of Hong Kong where silver was even used to buy opium. I don't claim to be a master of history but my work is a re-imagination of that.’

Upstairs, Liu’s newest works reflect his interest in architecture with thick tactile layers of oil paint applied like rough plaster to a canvas, and a series of three smaller-scale mirrored works placed on ‘found’ furniture.

‘It is the simplicity and straightforwardness of discarded things that interests me,’ he concludes.

Liu Wei’s ’Silver’ at White Cube, Hong Kong

The artist utilises cheap, industrial materials for his exhibitions, chosen for their class connotations. ’They are natural to this artificial urban environment,’ he says

(Image credit: Liu Wei and White Cube)

An abstract assemblage of enormous organic-shaped mirrors

The show’s centrepiece is Puzzle, 2014; an abstract assemblage of enormous organic-shaped mirrors creating an intriguing sculptural enclosure while simultaneously playing with our notions of perception.

(Image credit: Liu Wei and White Cube)

Steel sheets draped over metal rods

Steel sheets draped over metal rods create abstract cross-like in Crucifixion

(Image credit: Liu Wei and White Cube)

Steel sheets draped over metal rods

Wei’s video work acts as a counterpoint to the predominately silver surroundings; inspired by neon advertising found in urban environments, it exists as a form of colourful liberation from a colonial past

(Image credit: Liu Wei and White Cube)

Steel sheets draped over metal rods

Silver is a predominant theme throughout the space – Wei cites Hong Kong’s opium trade with the British Empire, in which the drug was traded for silver, as an influence

(Image credit: Liu Wei and White Cube)

Steel sheets draped over metal rods

The symbolism of everyday materials is the crux of the show, with the historical and class aspects of the exhibition stemming from this theme. ’It is the simplicity and straightforwardness of discarded things that interests me,’ the artist explains

(Image credit: Liu Wei and White Cube)

INFORMATION

’Liu Wei: Silver’ is on view from 17 September – 24 October 2015

Photography courtesy of Liu Wei and White Cube

ADDRESS

White Cube Hong Kong
50 Connaught Road
Central, Hong Kong

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Catherine Shaw is a writer, editor and consultant specialising in architecture and design. She has written and contributed to over ten books, including award-winning monographs on art collector and designer Alan Chan, and on architect William Lim's Asian design philosophy. She has also authored books on architect André Fu, on Turkish interior designer Zeynep Fadıllıoğlu, and on Beijing-based OPEN Architecture's most significant cultural projects across China.