LIANG Li: Mortal Beings: Curated by Leo Li CHEN
Using photography as the main medium, Liang Li's works have been conducted in the Himalayan region and South Asia, focusing on the cultural complexity and daily life of different faiths and regions. From a female perspective, she explores the ordinary society of non-Western religious philosophy in the context of geopolitical and cultural conflicts. Liang Li has won many international photography awards such as Fine Art Photography Awards (FAPA) and Monochrome Awards. She was a member of the jury of UNESCO International Photo Contest in 2023. She also got the distinction of Licentiate (LRPS) from Royal Photographic Society. Liang Li has been photographing in India, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and China. She lives and works in Beijing.
SIMPLE ONE is delighted to present Mortal Beings, the first solo exhibition of Chinese artist Liang Li, which contains her 37 photos and many related archival images in the past ten years. Since 2013, Liang Li has been traveling to the Himalayan region and South Asia to take records of the local people’s life, where diverse religious civilizations exist. Instead of being defined by physical distance, these areas are remote for the force of modernity to reach because of their natural environment, religion, and complex ethnicity. Liang Li’s works focus on the simple and mundane life of religious people, in order to convey a firm strength that has not been disturbed by modernism.
Liang Li’s works are mainly portraits with scenes of daily life, folk customs and specific rituals. Because of the geographical environment and specific culture, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and other religions blend with secular life. In their daily life, the subjects naturally present the continuation and search for the spiritual power of ancient civilization. Liang Li’s early works are rather documentary with the emphasis on a certain instant. With further exploration, she constantly adjusted between the role of creator and observer, and tried to rethink how to understand the freedom and habitat of spiritual life. Gradually her works became more quotidian and intimate, and the difference between subject and object disappeared. She was there with them, the monks, boys and girls, people on the streets and boats. Their eyes were pure and unguarded. Their life was simple and serene. At the same time, she insisted on capturing people and scenes, which blurred the line between performativity and daily life, so as to explore a universal perception of the world.
In Liang Li's works, we will not see the spectacle of religion and folklore, or the otherization of suffering and underdevelopment. In her works, religion and difference are a given existence and objective perspective instead of the precondition. Although we can recognize the different beliefs and customs by people’s faces, clothes and scenes, their eyes and body gestures are relaxed and natural. Liang Li's works attempt to capture the life and spiritual support that can be shared under the difference. This is a life experience of religious secularization as well as the search and inquiry for the ideal spiritual place in the world.
Support: BONIAN SPACE
