The theme of Li Qing’s latest exhibition explores issues raised by clothing: the manufacturing of clothes, weaving as creativity and resistance, the social symbolism and civilizing effects of clothing. The artist’s ruminations on the subject drift across selected historical artworks, period photographic images and current realities of China’s export-based economy. The references bring together distant cultures and stretch across temporal epochs; this presents a puzzling pastiche that the artist seems to delight in. To thicken the narrative plot, his explorations are made intentionally ‘academic’ through visual quotations and historical anecdotes, but this also makes turgid the artist’s original visual imagination. Arguably it was his visual imagination that lured him into the theme in the first place, and this is where unpacking of the artist’s intention should start. It would be curious to know how he decided on his choice of references, how they fit into his own historical frame and what cultural milieu he speaks to. Behind the academic façade, the artist has perhaps left messages quietly embedded in this linked group of artworks.

- Excerpt from Distant Echoes of Strife by Chang Tsong-Zung

Co-presented by The Fundação Oriente (The Orient Foundation) and Hanart TZ Gallery