Video, sculpture
Colored brass, iPhone8P
Li Ming
BIOGRAPHY
Li Ming (b. 1986, Yuanjiang) currently lives and works in Hangzhou. In 2008, he received his BFA from the China Academy of Art.
Li Ming began to be known to the scene due to his early experimental performances, often recorded through DV cameras, intervening in the rapid urbanization of the Chinese landscape. His oeuvres examine the material flow of commodities or digital data through its time-based quality, in which a particular logic of circulation tends to be adopted as a loose protocol that guides the image sequences. Above all, the qualities of spontaneity and serendipity invoked the inaugural Chinese conceptualism and video art of the 1990s. Set in the age of data abundance that altered our sense of memory and temporality, Li Ming’s video work was impacted by his daily meditation practices. Together, it has led the artist to search for a cinema of affect with his sense of cognitive inner realities and its hyper-connectivity. This aspect is best epitomized by his creative use of non-linear rhythm in film editing and the densely choreographed daily events, at times psychedelic, at times reminiscent of homemade video reels.
Li Ming has received 2022 – 2023 Porsche Young Chinese Artist of the Year, the 2017 Hugo Boss Asia Art Award and the 2008 Pierre Huber Creation Prize. His works have been shown widely in major institutions such as Power Station of Art, Busan Biennale, Museo Pino Pascali, Borusan Contemporary, Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial, and UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing. Selected solo and duo exhibitions: Darren Bader & Li Ming: Mind the Gap, By Art Matters (OōEli – Tianmuli Art Museum), Hangzho (2023); Being Consumed, Antenna Space, Shanghai (2021); 201420162021, OCT Boxes Art Museum, Foshan (2021); Zhu Changquan & Li Ming: Wild Cursive, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou (2020); 1703, Antenna Space, Shanghai (2018); Inspired by Transliteration, HDM Gallery, Hangzhou (2017); ME I WE, UCCA, Beijing (2015); Mediation, Antenna Space, Shanghai (2014). Selected group exhibitions: OCAT × KADIST Emerging Media Artist Program: In Solidarity with____, OCAT Shanghai (2022); The Elephant Escaped, Macalline Art Center, Beijing (2022); On Behalf Of, Qiao Space, Shanghai (2021); The Circular Impact: Video Art 21, OCAT Shanghai (2021); Affect, Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan (2021); Future, Future—Young Artists’ Experimental Film Project, Center for Experimental Film, Shanghai (2020); Normal Days, Antenna Space at OōEli, Hangzhou (2020); Me, Family, MUDAM Luxembourg (2020); Remapping Reality, OCAT Shanghai (2019); The Force Temple, Tank, Shanghai (2019); Out of Ink: Interpretations from Chinese Contemporary Art, Pera Museum, Istanbul (2019); About The Worlds We Know, OCAT Xi’an (2018); Hugo Boss Asia Art, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2017); .com/.cn, chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai, and K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong (2017).
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Li Ming, ≠ : “Finally! Parallel lines meet!” #1, 2023
作品信息Information -
Li Ming, ≠ : “Finally! Parallel lines meet!” #2, 2023
Video, sculpture
Colored brass, iPhone8P作品信息Information -
Li Ming, ≠ : “Finally! Parallel lines meet!” #3, 2023
Video, sculpture
Colored brass, iPhone8P作品信息Information -
Li Ming, ANTENNA SPACE, 2023
Pigmented bronze
120 x 33 x 17 cm作品信息Information -
Li Ming, I Am Not Not Not Chen Zhou (Li Ming Editing Version), 2023
Single-channel HD video, 1920 x 1080, color, sound
00:03:00The work courtesy of and credit to the artist Chen Zhou.
作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Disposable Lighters-Apple, 2014-2016
9-channel HD video, color, sound
Video 1:00:01:50
Video 2:00:05:04
Video 3:00:05:10
Video 4:00:10:03
Video 5:00:11:46
Video 6:00:06:35
Video 7:00:09:27
Video 8:00:07:53
Video 9:00:27:58作品信息Information -
Li Ming, 361, 2014
Single-Channel HD Digital Video, Color, Sound
00:05:51I commissioned some lighters in Xiayi County, Henan Province.
This is a documentation of 361 lighters being broken and blasted. 361 here is not a metaphor and does not have a reference. It merely means the limit of how long my body could be physically consumed.
作品信息Information -
Li Ming, 2014201620212022 No.1, 2023
Disposable lighter exploded on handmade watercolor paper, Epson UV print, mounted in aluminum frame
125 x 220 cm (without frame)作品信息Information -
Li Ming, 2014201620212022 No.2, 2023
Disposable lighter exploded on handmade watercolor paper, Epson UV print, mounted in aluminum frame
125 x 220 cm (without frame)作品信息Information -
Li Ming, 2014201620212022#B Series, 2023
(Left) 2014201620212022#B#1-15, 2023
Disposable lighter exploded on full-color printing photographic paper, mounted in aluminum frame
46 x 34 x 5 cm (with frame)(Right) Apple Meat, 2023
Epson UV print on metal Barium sulfide, mounted in aluminum frame
27 x 22.3 x 4.5 cm (with frame)作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Apple Meat, 2023
Epson UV print on metal Barium sulfide, mounted in aluminum frame
27 x 22.3 x 4.5 cm (with frame)作品信息Information -
Li Ming, 201420162021, 2014-2016
Disposable lighters, handmade paper
110 (H) x 80 cm (W)作品信息Information -
Li Ming, REMAINS, 2014
Disposable lighters, handmade paper
110 x 80 cm361 disposable lighters with red gas have been broken and blasted on this piece of paper.
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Li Ming, 977, 2014
Disposable lighters, handmade paper
200 x 142 cm977 disposable lighters with red gas have been broken and blasted on this piece of paper.
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Li Ming, Dolens, 2021
Single-channel HD video, 4K,color, sound
00:21:50作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Swordsman – HaHaHaHaHa, 2011
Action, single-channel video,color, sound
00:03:28作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Inspired by Transliteration – Chapter six: Zone Out, 2021
Single-channel video, color, sound, 4K, HD
00:21:58作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Inspired by Transliteration – Chapter Five: One Day, 2021
Single-channel video, color, sound
00:13:43
Edition: 2/5 + 2 AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Inspired by Transliteration – Chapter Four: Fèng, 2020
Single-channel HD video, color, sound
00:21:50
Edition: 1/5 + 2 AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Inspired by Transliteration – Chapter Three: Wavelength, 2018
Single-channel HD video, color, sound
00:18:58作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Inspired by Transliteration – Chapter Two: Emergency Exit #3, 2017
Single-channel HD video, color, B&W, sound
00:04:30作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Inspired by Transliteration – Chapter Two: Emergency Exit #2, 2017
Single-channel HD video, color, B&W, sound
00:06:01作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Inspired by Transliteration – Chapter Two: Emergency Exit #1, 2017
Single-channel HD video, color, B&W, sound
00:14:19作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Inspired by Transliteration – Chapter One: A white dragon glides across the street in front of the Land and Resources Bureau, 2017
Single-channel HD video, color, sound
00:02:09作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Pigeon 2021, 2016-2021
1# G
Single-channel HD video, color, sound
00:21:582# Pigeon (TCHA)
Single-channel video, color, sound
00:04:443# Inner Landscape (Wu Lang)
Single-channel video, color, silent
00:03:004# COMMOC (co-created with Darren Bader)
Installation
Dimensions and duration variableThe long-term art project “Pigeon 2021” of Li Ming started with his video work G. Following the intervention of the art institution TCHA, who created 10 “pigeon coins” in accordance with the logic of virtual currency on the Internet to embed the series of works into the blockchain, echoing the value change from one dollar to ten dollars in G. The first of the 10 pigeon coins was used to confirm the rights of G. The second was given to Pigeon produced by TCHA. The third was given to director Wu Lang’s Inner Landscape. The fourth belonged to a new work by Li Ming and Darren Bader. The project will continue, and Li Ming will keep releasing an equal number of pigeon coins for use by the subsequent creators together with TCHA.
作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Féng|fèng and memories with relation to féng|fèng # -o-o-o-o-o-o, 2021
Epson UV print ( Archival paper ), Mounted in aluminum frames
48 x 63 cm
Edition: 4 + 2AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Féng|fèng and memories with relation to Féng|fèng # -o-o-o, 2021
Epson UV print ( Archival paper), Mounted in aluminum frames
81 x 61 cm each, 2 photographs
Edition: 4 + 2 AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Féng|fèng and memories with relation to féng|fèng # -o-o, 2021
Epson UV print (Archival paper), Mounted in wooden frames
151 x 131 cm
4 + 2 AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Féng|fèng and memories with relation to féng|fèng # – -, 2021
Epson UV print (Archival paper), Mounted in wooden frames
105 x 105 cm
Edition: 4 + 2 AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Féng|fèng and memories with relation to féng|fèng # 4:45pm, 2021
Epson UV print on acrylic, Mounted in aluminum frames
120 x 96 cm
Edition: 6 + 2 AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Féng|fèng and memories with relation to féng|fèng # nothing, 2021
Epson UV print ( Archival paper ), Mounted in aluminum frames
51 x 74 cm
Edition: 6 + 2AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Féng|fèng and memories with relation to féng|fèng # a, a’, 2021
Epson UV print ( Archival paper ), Mounted in aluminum frames
46 x 61 cm
Edition: 4 + 2AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Féng #1212121, 2021
Epson UV print on Ilford blank-and-white photographic paper, Mounted in aluminum frames
66 x 33 cm each, 9 photographs
Edition: 4 + 2 AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Working, 2021
Brass
163 x 16 x 50 cm
Edition: 4 + 1 AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, A chance encounter with Li Liao, 2019
Epson UV print ( Archival paper), Mounted in aluminum frames
56 x 71 cm
Edition: 6 + 2 AP作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Teacher Teacher 2, 2020
Single-channel HD video, color, sound
Dimensions variable
00:16:11作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Play is the reason, 2021
Oil on canvas
43 x 34 cm作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Main Body, 2018
Single channel HD video, color, sound
Display size variable
00:65:48作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Channel, 2018
7 Channel HD video, 1080P, color, sound, synchronizer
Display size variable (3 Cannel HD video in the 2018 exhibition Li Ming: 1703)
00:12:20作品信息Information -
Li Ming, “《Feedback》”, Volume 1, 2018
5 Channel HD video, color, sound, synchronizer
Display size variable
00:28:58作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Record, 2018
Sound, texts, digital prints, packaging materials
Display size variable
00:32:21作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Signal, 2017
Paint on paper, print
40 x 50 cm作品信息Information -
Li Ming, The Phantom That is Screen, 2016
iPad, Epson Micro spray on canvas, kite skeleton
Video: 00:07:46
Installation: 140 x 2.5 x 300 cm (6 pieces)The kite installation image courtesy of the artist, By Art Matters, Hangzhou and Antenna Space, Shanghai. Photo © Young
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Li Ming, Rendering the Mind, 2017
15-channel HD video installation, color, sound
Video # 1: The Kuleshov Effect-1 (duration: 00:27:57)
Video # 2: The Kuleshov Effect-2 (duration: 00:10:39)
Video # 3: The Kuleshov Effect-3 (duration: 00:20:13)
Video # 4: The Kuleshov Effect-4 (duration: 00:05:06)
Video # 5: Security exit (duration: 00:05:37)
Video # 6: Junction (duration: 00:11:53)
Video # 7: Wavelength, 3 laps (duration: 00:16:00)
Video # 8: command line – 1 (duration: 00:18:50)
video # 9: command line – 2 (duration: 00:02:10),
video # 10: command line – 3 (duration: 00:11:16)
Video # 12: Cement Plant (duration: 00:15:21)
Video # 13: Underground, forward (duration: 00:21:57)
video # 14: Underground (duration: 00:02:00)
Video # 15: the flipped mountain tunnel (duration: 00:27:54)作品信息Information -
Li Ming, ME I WE, 2015
Installation, video, sound, text, light, audience
Dimensions variable
00:09:27
“ME I WE” The relationship of a set of lens does not end here. They lens constitute a movement – in truth we can easily imagine how two mirrors reflect each other’s image – which is instantaneously formed. Nevertheless we can artificially assign it a temporal depth; such is the function of words. They can stretch, separate into layers, and even guide a process that is instantaneously completed. Words are different from pictures. They are not instant, smooth and clear to the eye. When one read words, one read them in linear fashion. It takes time to read them. Indeed the manner in which words are structured is itself one that requires advance thoughts.It is an attempt to create certain space. In this context, the formation of text is also an attempt to accomplish study and correction of oneself. From these words we can see how one (as in “ME”) develops to become many (as in “WE”). Each time an individual ‘grow’ to two, three, four and even five individuals, there will be changes in the relationship. During this process an increasing part of the external world is being drawn into one’s own world. Perhaps it is possible to identify certain relationship, scenario, phenomenon or circumstances that are familiar to the individual – they do not cross the boundaries of real life but are neither limited to its logic. Ultimately the hope is to create an increasing number of connecting points, real or imaginary, with reality. These words are not precise algorithms; they remain to be very much a part of language. Thus they often generalize or even allude to the wrong matter and stray from their train of thoughts before finally returning to their original premise. Insofar as they accompany such growth and shift in position, the scenarios and the issues involved in them also extend from one that is totally private to one that is semi-private, semi-public and completely public, until they congregate at an abstract level. Nonetheless this not the finishing points as we thought – it is only a point. Corresponding to this point is yet another point – the original individual entity. You can also imagine as such: these words ultimately make up a loop. Just as they seek to describe “a group of people” in this manner – “there is eventually presented a shape with a smooth surface. It may be round or somewhat round with curves replacing straight lines and sharp angles.” In the midst of it all, the words suddenly become voices, constituting a destructive intrusion. The voices are embedded in the transition from a group of people to an individual. They are spoken in the first person by individuals before they met others, and describe their stories or parts of the story. Yet at the same time we discover that the motive for such spoken statements which are detached from their temporal-spatial sequences, is to share or even seek help. All of them have the effect of bringing us back to the original title of “MEIWE” which is at once complementary and self-contradictory.作品信息Information -
L Ming, A Succeeded Failure, 2015
Singele-channel HD video, color, sound
Display size variable
00:01:03作品信息Information -
Li Ming, MOVEMENTS, 2014
Eight-channel HD digital video , color, sound
Video 1: 00:02:30
Video 2: 00:02:30
Video 3: 00:02:30
Video 4: 00:02:30
Video 5: 00:03:53
Video 6: 00:03:53
Video 7: 00:03:53
Video 8: 00:03:53During four different times in the same space, the artist has completed an image-making process from “imagination – realizing the imagination by means of a video camera – recovering the imagination through body movements”.
Treating his body as a prop, the artist interacts with various means of transportation in the video, offering meaningless “relationships” for the audience to consume.
In the video, “actions” have been “performed” as kind of texts – the serial movements as hidden montages in the long scenes, merely “occurs” without any meanings in fact. What the artist cares is whether his cooperating relationship with the video camera could interact with the audiences and how the artist, the video camera and the audiences control one another. Every prop shown in the video is not only a motivation that guides the artist’s movements, but also a trap leading audience to control the props by their consciousness. And these motivations are arranged into a certain pace to make the movements simply for looking at.
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Li Ming, Straight Line, Landscape, 2014-2016
Performance, 26-channel HD video
Part 1 – Straight Line, Video 1-25 duration: 00:02:30
Part 2 – Landscape, Video 26 duration: 00:17:40
Dimensions variable作品信息Information -
Li Ming, ZOOM, 2014
Two-channel HD video, color, sound
Video 1: 00:23:07
Video 2: 00:00:23作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Song of the Artist, 2011
Four-channel video,color, sound
00:10:38
00:09:04
00:05:25
00:02:18* Animal Protection Declaration: The animals appearing in the work are all incidentally encountered by the artist or rented through regular sources, and the animals were not actually harmed in the process of making the work.
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Li Ming, 1T, 2018
Paper currency, Apple host case, candles or matches
Dimension variable作品信息Information -
Li Ming, The Inspiration of the Dream Seeker, 2017
Mixed media
Dimensions variable
Cooperated with Darren Bader
Images courtesy of the artist, By Art Matters, Hangzhou and Antenna Space, Shanghai. Photo © Young作品信息Information -
Li Ming, The inspiration of the dream seeker-A0 No.1, 2017
A4 paper, marker pen, pencil, seal
84 x 119 cm作品信息Information -
Li Ming, The inspiration of the dream seeker-A0 No.2, 2017
A4 paper, marker pen, pencil, seal
119 x 84 cm作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Inspired by Transliteration – White Beard, 2015 – 2016
Photo paper, watercolor paper, handmade paper, printing paper, notes and other paper 600 × 67 × 300 cm
作品信息Information -
Li Ming, ≠ : “Finally! Parallel lines meet!” #5, 2024
Brass (heat-colored brass), acrylic coloring, iPhone 12 mini
455(mm) x 170(mm) x 260(mm)作品信息Information -
Li Ming, ≠ : “Finally! Parallel lines meet!” #4, 2024
Brass (heat-colored brass), marker pen graffiti, iPhone 12 mini
450(mm) x 350(mm) x 250(mm)作品信息Information -
Li Ming, item, 2019-2020
German reflecta Huida projector AFM model, slide (50 pieces)
20(cm) x 30(cm) x 42(cm)作品信息Information
Artworks
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Horizons: Is there anybody out there?
2023.09.16 – 2023.10.25
Curator: Robin Peckham
Participating Artists: Korakrit Arunanondchai, Dora Budor, Hilo Chen, Xinyi Cheng, Cui Jie, Simon Denny, Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel, Buck Ellison, Carolyn Forrester, Owen Fu, Sayre Gomez, Guan Xiao, Han Bing, Tishan Hsu , Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, Allison Katz, KAYA (Kerstin Brätsch & Debo Eilers), Matthew Lutz Kinoy, Josh Kline, Stanislava Kovalcikova, Heidi Lau, Li Ming, Yong Xiang Li, Liu Chuang, Jr-Shin Luo, Nancy Lupo, Mai Zhixiong, Helen Marten, Alexandra Noel, Peng Zuqiang, Tara Walters, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Xie Nanxing, Joseph Yaeger, Yu Honglei, Yu Peng, Zhao Gang, Zhou Siwei (alphabetically) -
Li Ming: Being Consumed
2021.11.06 – 2021.12.22
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Transcendental Empathy: Cheng Xinyi, Dora Budor, Guan Xiao, Han Bing, Li Ming, Yu Honglei, Zhou Siwei, Huang Yuxing, Louisa Gagliardi, Liu Ding, Tang Dayao, Xu Qu
2018.09.29 – 2018.10.30
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Li Ming: 1703
2018.03.23 – 2018.05.04
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I Could See the Smallest Things: Allison Katz, Li Ming, Zhou Siwei, Tim Enthoven, Lu Chunsheng, Jonas Lipps, Liu Weijian, He Xun
2017年12月3日 – 2018年1月4日
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Li Ming: Inspired by Transliteration
2017.07.01 – 2017.08.01
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New Directions: Li Ming
2015.10.30 – 2016.01.03
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Li Ming: Mediation
2014.05.31 – 2014.07.10
EXHIBITIONS
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Cui Jie, Liu Chuang, Li Ming | 目China: A new generation of artists @ Centre Pompidou
2024.10.o9 – 2025.02.03
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Li Ming | Li Ming & Darren Bader: Mind the Gap @ By Art Matters
2023.04.29 – 2023.09.03
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Li Ming | “OCAT x KADIST: In Solidarity with____” @ OCAT Shanghai
2022.08.27-2022.10.23
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Li Ming | “201420162021” @ OCT Boxes Art Museum
2021.05.25-2021.06.23
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Li Ming | “Zhu Changquan × Li Ming: Wild Cursive” @ Zhejiang Art Museum
2020.11.08-2020.12.10
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Li Ming | “HUGO BOSS ASIA ART: Award for Emerging Asian Artists” @ Rockbund Art Museum
2017.10.27-2018.02.11
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Li Ming | “The 2014 OCAT-Pierre Huber Art Prize Shortlist Exhibition” @ OCAT Shanghai
2014.12.20-2015.03.01
NEWS
ANTENNA-TENNA
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Six Chapters on Li Ming | He Jing
When I write, there is nothing other than what I write. Whatever else I felt I have not been able to say, and whatever else has escaped me are ideas or a stolen verb which I will destroy, to replace them with something else.
Antonin Artaud