Movement
2014 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
Li Ming
In the eight-channel video installation Movement , Li Ming uses his body as a prop to interact with different means of transportation. Each channel features footage of the artist moving forward, jumping between various modes of transportation that weave in and out of the frame in a carefully orchestrated choreography. As the artist descends from the loader bucket of a moving construction tractor, he jumps onto a skateboard which he then discards as he lays on top of a suitcase that continues rolling forward. Running, skating, sliding on a trolley, chasing lifts from bicycles, trucks, excavators, tuk-tuks, all form part of his journey. The synchronization of the eight videos binds the parallel narratives together, creating the effect of the artist chasing his own image in an endless loop unravelling across the same city-scape. The use of repetition and seriality that and deceptive impression of linearity, echoes the illusion of time/space that is commonly used in Hollywood films.
Li Ming creates video, installation, performance and photography that explores the relationships between individuals and society through the lens of their interactions with daily objects and their direct environments. In 2008, Li Ming founded the art collective Double Fly Art Center, known for enacting humorous and anarchic public actions such as staging a mock bank robbery and faking orgasms while getting their feet massaged. The collective’s focus on improvisation, spontaneity and the nonsensical nature of their endeavours have become an important influence for on Li Ming’s practice, who in his recent videos, has relied on his own body to reveal hidden connections between space, time, himself and various social issues he perceives around him. His videos often have a purposefully grainy, shaky, and near amateur quality, reflecting the carefree ethos that defines his practice. Entangled with his playful and experimental approach there are always underlying questions, social investigation and commentary — from the way we interact with technology, to Chinese politics, to spatial and temporal questions.
