Hive Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing) is honored to announce the upcoming launch of artist Li Wenguang’s special project “Science Fiction” on April 27, 2019, his third solo held in Hive after his first solo under his own name in 2017 and his second solo, “Palingraphia”, in 2018. The show is to last until June 5th.

Since 2004, Li Wenguang (b. 1985 in Shanghai) has been making art with pure creativity and thus established an extensive system of art-making. Different from his clue-specific solo under his own name and his “Palingraphia” solo that features certain geometrical schemata with unique visual characteristics, this special project is based on such an important clue of his art practice: it was in 2012 when the artist became interested in the areas of pseudoscience and subconscious, which set off a lasting exploration of his in the “Fallacy – Science Fiction” series. The difference is that the new works to be presented this time can shed some light on the artist’s unique methodology, i.e. the making of multiple spatial dimensions revolving around the basic components of a work and “Science Fiction”, the text narrative fabricated by the artist.

The first impression of Li Wenguang’s new works is composed of rhythmical syllables, abstract schemata and fluid mixture with a rather diffusive scent. In fact, he adopts among the elements above the most basic structures intentionally for his construction, and also continues the tonality of red and blue for every painting as before. Another thing he picks up from his previous practice is the employment of rhythmical letters instead of symbolic Chinese characters, which means that the artist has no intention of working on the symbolism inside but attempts to explore the likely connection between abstract painting and science fiction or the thinking involved in spite of their different logical narratives. Just as in this project, Li Wenguang has brought out an abstract view characteristic of humanistic reflection for all derivatives from “Dark Water Tales”: the “tale” script, the “monster” images and the still “subjective” imagination of “amulet”.

Analogical to what’s between the origin of science fiction and the Industrial Revolution, the water pollution caused by industrialization and human corrosion are actually two different ports of the same chain. In the narrative structure of science fiction, the aftermath of human practice is often also a big part of its material, just like the “monsters” are also created somehow by human beings through experiments and the pollution that comes after. To represent the water pollution caused by industrialization, the artist adopts in his new pieces a viscous texture that implies something uncertain, fluid and even convertible or symbolizes an uncontrollable state; and what’s around the uncontrollable is the intensely subjective incarnation of order in various forms, and the two makes the principal contradictory pair in the paintings. The rhythmical text all over every painting as the main component of the base, if considered legible, implies an unsmooth, obstructive form, which means that the text is intended to be inspiring or warning; but Li Wenguang has actually altered the form of the syllables structurally so as to conceal the meaning of the text and to add to the salience of form. After a long time spent in weaving the visual space, the reading space and the psychological space together, the artist has given this reality-based projection view multiple layers through humanistic simulation.

The exhibition reveals the logic of the entanglement again by rewriting relevant news stories on the base of distressed butter paper, which, to elaborate, is to simulate, compose and restructure the reality factors that appear fragmentary revolving around the subject of humanity and through the divergent thinking absorbed from science fiction, so as to make the works projective to some extent. This is not only connected with real-life causes but has also been internalized in the whole creation process of the artist. As it turns out, Li Wenguang is trying to ignite the imagination of the viewers again with a series of visual, cultural and psychological views he has constructed.