New Urban Pastoral Sites - An analysis of Li Yimo’s Paintings
It is said that "the most admirable hermit lives in the centre of politics while the least admirable one lives far from politics." Mr. Li Yimo definitely stands in between. Against the background of “the wise men love mountains while the benevolent men prefer water”, Li Yimo has formed his individuality by combining both mountain and water. Mr. Li, with the optimism of traditional civilized men, is seeking new urban pastoral sites shared by all.
In his artistic works, Mr. Li is smoothly expressing his surrealistic concerns with certain romantic color in the form of fairy tales and fables, which is his personal interpretation of our era through fairy fantasies. This style of painting not only presents the interpretable desires of the urban youth, but also describes realistic “cultural ideals” by disinterestedly outlining fairy gardens wandering on deep water and the apartments of personal happiness. This is a purely romantic dream with unique ideals of life and realism. Given the crisis and devaluation in our era, this kind of painting gives out a real sense of closeness.
From another perspective, this kind of painting boasts the features of “the Lost Paradise” in an era of “Daren” (expert in a profession). The background of this feature is the result of our embarrassing era where money comes first and materialistic pursuits pervade. Since the idealism of the young people is covered immediately, voluntary idling is the best way to escape.
The escape with low profiles from "high-pressure zone" and the whimsical floating of the "cream island" thereafter is the background of the whole story. Painting skills present no difficulty for Mr. Li who has enjoyed systematic education in painting. For the public, with considerable acquaintance of skills in painting, high-profile cases with deep thoughts or some visual symbolic characteristics of the era naturally come along. It is a pity that in an era of expressing real life through visual arts in critical and joking languages, those fashionable visual symbols featuring exaggeration, excitement and difference has become a cliché.
As a young artist in today’s world, Mr. Li, despite of wandering, apparently has not yet fallen into the crisis which is the trap for the vulnerable. He is committed to the realization of works through virtual self-interpretation and self-construction of “existence”. The fairy tale-like living situation is acturally a lonely spiritual island near the city, floating but not leaving, like the ideal, which serves a paradise for dreams, and owns a tranquil harbor of its own. On the other hand, it is easy to tell that his cold treatment through conscious use of colors reveals his contradictory attitude that the ideal is impossible.
It is hard to equate such an escape with the state of "Paradise Lost". On the contrary, Li Yimo presents "dangerous buildings" with "sound, light, electricity" and other basic living characteristics in the metropolis. At the same time, he also wants to guide readers to regard the “l(fā)onely island” as complete relaxation in the atmosphere of self-happiness with "car", "air conditioning", "zebra-like" pet park, etc. An escape is also some spiritual enjoyment. What calls my attention is the "cream land". The bubble of cream is sweet, vulnerable and sensitive. Does the spiritual pursuit based on it merely seek for personal spiritual joy and solitude?
With the pleasure of living in "dangerous buildings" on the "cream land", Li Yimo wants to remind us of fear and helplessness at the destruction of the bubble crisis. In many cases, we even lose our basic capacity for penetration. He is always trying to lead the readers to enter the fairy imagination of the scenarios in the paintings. Such imagination proves to be an interactive process, which makes possible the coexistence of "possilbe" and "impossible facts" and the co-existence of sense of crisis and happiness. And this process is permeated with "floating power" of the young people.
In terms of the use of painting skills, besides the utilization of traditional techniques of realism, Li Yimo also makes some innovation by learning from visual arts which often combine realistic and expressive styles. Such a combination is sometimes strict and sometimes otherwise, but it is pertinent to the fairy flavor of “romanticism”. To some extent, this is in line with the intention of Mr. Li.
The way of painting in contemporary art has moves away from historic pressure and responsibility. In the business operation circle of the consumption era, "uncertainty" has always been there since the end of last century. Cartoon figures have passed one after another, and the gradual devaluation of big-head image predicts the appearance of a new crisis in values. The pressure of painting has transferred onto individual thoughts of artists, without any company or appreciator. Only those young people with painting as their ideal could devote themselves to hard thinking day after day.
This contradictory reconstruction has come into being quietly and with good reason. Reviewing the consumption background of contemporary arts, we, in an era full of visual extravagance and violence, have tried to interpret it by means of surrealistic and romantic youth. The groups with sense of crisis have transferred to visual painting, and Mr. Li Yimo is definitely one of them.
Back to reality, we can find that the growth of young artists like Li Yimo is under the direct influence of visual games, cartoon, comics, virtual internet and other pop culture. These factors combined have become the group memory of such a generation. Meanwhile, in the current international era with cultural torrent featuring inclusiveness and even penetration, it is very difficult for artists to keep a sober mind. In this regard, the commitment and pursuit of Li Yimo realizes the possibility for fairy tales in painting, and provides a haven from urban shallowness and makes quietness possible in a materialistic city.
Written by Ji Wang
June 10, 2009
