2023.04.29 – 2023.09.03
Li Ming | Li Ming & Darren Bader: Mind the Gap @ By Art Matters
Antenna Space is delighted to announce that artist Li Ming held a duo exhibition with artist Darren Bader, Mind the Gap, at By Art Matters (Tianmuli Art Museum) in Hangzhou. The exhibition opens from April 29 to September 3, 2023.
The exhibition Mind the Gap presents a dialogue between the two artists, Darren Bader and Li Ming, who are situated in geographically distant locations – New York and Hangzhou, respectively. This is Darren Bader’s first institutional exhibition in China. The exhibition features a collection of approximately 70 works by Darren Bader and Li Ming, spanning over a decade. Some of these works are being exhibited for the first time, including collaborations specifically created for the exhibition. The exhibition creates an immersive residence called “Apartment 401”, showcasing a clever and humorous blend of mixed media. Together, these elements create a subtle and poetic display that invites visitors to engage with the works on multiple levels.
Over the course of three years of preparation for the exhibition, Darren Bader and Li Ming had to rely on transmitting their works through WeChat automatic translation in WeChat groups as their primary means of communication and cooperation. Despite this limitation, the collaboration reveals their distinct perspectives and sense of humour, highlighting where their diverse curiosities about the world intersected. Through this process, six sets of mutually referential keywords were distilled from their ideas: animal/metaphor, value/vacuum, coincidence/mistranslation, game/trade, digital/physical, and absurd/fun. Despite the potential language barrier between artists, the works always echo each other. The exhibition seeks to highlight the collision and resonance of the thoughts of these two fast-thinking and humorous artists travelling across both visible and intangible distances. (Text courtesy of the artist and By Art Matters, Hangzhou)
“Ping Heng Shu Ben Ben Kun” (“平衡术笨笨坤”, later referred to as B.B.K.) is a folk artist on Kuaishou with 2.379 million fans and 27.936 million likes. In 2018, Li Ming noticed that the balance works posted by B.B.K. on a daily basis were extremely similar to the works of the artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss in the Quiet Afternoon series. Li Ming direct messages B.B.K., but only to find out that he knew nothing about Peter Fischli and David Weiss. B.B.K., born and raised in Henan in the 1970s, was once a welder and only began this series of practices because of his interest in the balance between objects since childhood.
In 2019, Li Ming invited B.B.K. to perform twice in Shanghai. The first time was for the artistic project Lunar Eclipse at the Imagokinetics Lab, where B.B.K. performed balance tricks on the dinner table – dishes for the camera to “eat”. The second time was in The Force Temple at TANK Shanghai, where he used several art pieces collected by the collector Mr. Qiao Zhibing as props for his balance performances. In Li Ming’s view, B.B.K. and Peter Fischli & David Weiss are like two parallel lines that are unaware of each other, but due to the force of the Earth’s gravity, the parallel lines finally meet. Such a subtle relationship also occurs between Li Ming and Darren Bader. (Text courtesy of the artist and Antenna Space, Shanghai)
The installation views courtesy of the artist and By Art Matters, Hangzhou.
Photo © Young
Installation Views
Artworks
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Li Ming, ≠ : “Finally! Parallel lines meet!” #1, 2023
Video, sculpture
Colored brass, iPhone8P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, 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.3, 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.5, 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.4, 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.6, 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, 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, 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, Signal, 2017
Paint on paper, print
40 x 50 cm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, Teacher Teacher 2, 2020
Single-channel HD video, color, sound
Dimensions variable
00:16:11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 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, “《Feedback》”, Volume 1, 2018
5 Channel HD video, color, sound, synchronizer
Display size variable
00:28:58作品信息Information -
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, 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
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
Li MingSingele-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.
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.
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, Dog Language, 2009
Single-channel video, color, sound
4 mins 01 seconds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, Film Still of Nothing Happened Today 2, 2023
Grid cloth UV printing
450 x 230 cmInstallation image of “Darren Bader & Li Ming: Mind the Gap,” By Art Matters, Hangzhou. Courtesy the artist, By Art Matters, Hangzhou and Antenna Space, Shanghai. © Young
作品信息Information -
Li Ming, “Waiting for a Stroke of Fortune”, 2023
Grid cloth UV printing
450 x 280 cmInstallation image of “Darren Bader & Li Ming: Mind the Gap,” By Art Matters, Hangzhou. Courtesy the artist, By Art Matters, Hangzhou and Antenna Space, Shanghai. © Young
作品信息Information -
Li Ming, Stage Photo of Inspired by Transliteration – Chapter Three: Wavelength
Paperboard
13.1 x 7.3 cm作品信息Information