Preface

by Leng Lin

The signicance of Chinese contemporary art is not only reected in its joining the contemporary art world, but more importantly, by its rebellion against and reconsideration of contemporary Chinese culture.  

Socialism is one of the most crucial themes in contemporary Chinese culture - socialism in a theoretical sense. Socialism maneuvers and positions “reality” through its lens. In a world dominated by capitalism, China politicizes “reality” through its reading of events and their ideology. The “creation” and “understanding” of events are political. This political nature is the most important quality. The political viewing is the reality.

In a country where socialist ideology is practiced, the term “contemporary” is a reconsideration of such practices. And thus, this is the basis upon which Chinese contemporary art has developed. The paintings of Li Songsong are one of the results of this questioning.

The events depicted in Li Songsong’s paintings reflect a range of scales: big, small, meaningful and meaningless. His images are drawn from found pictures of events. For Li, this content is a kind of visual knowledge or visual ideology that is waiting to be understood.  

The artist breaks down the visual structure of the image by separating its visual contents into small parts and reproducing them one by one. This creates obstacles that impede the viewer’s understanding. Li also opposes the traditional method of depicting the image whole by assembling the painting part-by-part, which enables him to focus on the variability of his processes. Painting in non-sequential sections allows him to focus on the colors specific to that part. By applying thick layers of colors as well as painting layers on the canvas coupled with deep brushstrokes that break through the layers he has built, he manages to avoid the creation of any sense of direction. And by changing the speed of application due to aluminum’s cohesive properties, his de-familiarizes his practice. All these adjustments are intended to create a certain “distance”. 

Li does not follow an order; he creates parts or paints sections slowly combining the unrelated elements to recreate the original. He rebuilds after intentional destruction. By deconstructing an existing image and then remaking it, Li’s resulting paintings reflect the wholeness the image once possessed and its transformation. Likewise, the image’s original ideology is altered as a new image is made. The relationships he creates highlight the space he builds into his paintings, creating a distance that we encounter, which may be interpreted by the audience as an abstraction. And yet this space must on the one hand be seen as a political reading or position, while also being recognized as an aesthetic choice. In creating this abstraction, the artist captures his position and point-of-view, which is, in actuality, a type of awareness. Through Li Songsong’s work we can see that in China, realism in art can be public while also being private; and that which we see as a political point-of-view can also be a manifestation of personal creativity. 

Throughout the 20th century, art history has developed a visual logic which has influenced the world. In the 1990s, art history was forced to adjust and expand as multiculturalism gained relevance. After many efforts, Chinese contemporary artists renewed interest in the examination of socio-political practices in the visual sphere. In China, the concept of “contemporary” is not merely an indication of time; more importantly, it represents the distance that it keeps from that which came before. Li Songsong’s paintings are a reaction of this distance.