Tianbing Li builds bridges between East and West by merging motifs and techniques from traditional Chinese painting with elements of western iconography. Exploring a wide variety of different painting techniques, the artist finds subtle ways to express his socio-critical views on contemporary Chinese society.

The “Beizitou – One Hundred Children“ series refers to a centuries-old traditional motif in Chinese painting. Whereas the traditional representation of a large number of happily playing children stood for prosperity and happiness, Li uses this motif for a more critical discourse on the Chinese one-child policy as well as referring to today’s consumer culture and the resulting changes in cultural values. Some of the children’s faces feature brand icons of multinational companies while others are inscribed with text excerpts from newspapers or the internet. These markings visualize the omnipresent influences of the media, which the children are exposed to from an early age, so that brand names become associated with alleged guarantees for a good life. The seemingly weathered surfaces as well as the absence of colour represent the rough impact on the children’s identity and their loss of innocence. The frequent use of small canvases for the individual portraits clearly distances Li’s “Beizitou” series from the colourful and lively precursors in traditional painting, underlining the isolation these children find themselves in today.

In his most recent “My Other Childhood” series Tianbing Li is addressing China’s one-child policy from a different angle. These large-scale portraits show the artist with his imaginary brother. Li used two photographs of himself taken at different ages and combined them on one canvas. The artist describes his own childhood as very bleak and lonely lacking playmates and toys, so by creating imaginary siblings on the canvas and adding colourful toys Li can reinvent the past and relive his – now improved – childhood.

Tianbing Li puts great emphasis on an emotional and artistic approach to his works despite their socio-critical content. He is therefore not constructing overly complex paintings but creates atmospheric pieces, which enable the viewer to access the works emotionally. Li has deliberately not confined himself to a single painting style as he feels that it is only through stylistic variations that he is able to explore the boundaries of the medium. This approach also reflects the artist’s cultural background, rooted in the Eastern philosophy that all things are in a constant state of flux. The ongoing advancement of the “self ” thus finds its reflection in Tianbing Li’s ever-changing artistic expression.

Tianbing Li treads the line separating two dramatically different worlds: the China of his ancestral past and the China of the present. “I feel impelled to do this: all artists have a need to distance themselves from the world they live in to facilitate conditions conductive to reflection – otherwise they die”. The motivations underlying all of Li’s work are best characterized by an ongoing dialogue between old and new, between ancestral and modern, between the realities of China, on the one hand, and those of the European continent on the other.

“I created this series of canvases using ancient Chinese painting as a model. Each piece is composed using ancestral techniques.” However, as one approaches the work it becomes evident that Li’s content is contemporary. The blacks, whites and browns traditionally used give way to a modern palate – an allegory for the influences of western culture on present day China. Li’s images echo this theme: plants become parts of human bodies, insects transform into toys and other industrial products. “In an ironic fashion, I express in my paintings what is taking place in China today, where long-held traditions are little by little being eroded by the invasion of a consumer society and it is becoming subsequently, a world submerged in desire and yearning”.

INTERVIEW WITH ULI SIGG

ESSAY BY RANDY ROSEN

LI TIANBING : UN DIALOGUE AVEC LES FANTOMES.

IN THE NAME OF THE BRAND

LI TIANBING WITH THE CHARACTER OF PORTRAIT

AN INTERVIEW WITH LI TIANBING