Li Hui: V

The UCCA Nave becomes a landscape of the future in V, a laser installation designed specifically for the UCCA space by artist Li Hui.



Making the most of the beauty of three-dimensional space, the artist combines red lasers, smoke and mirrors to create a futuristic landscape that speaks to us more directly than words ever could.



In his foreword to the exhibition, UCCA Director Jérôme Sans says that “Li Hui’s installations and ‘light sculptures’ transcend the boundaries of language, logic and linear time. More an archeologist of the future than a spiritual shaman, Li Hui allows us to viscerally experience the realities of this world while anxiously contemplating the mysteries of the next.”



The artist himself believes that visual art is a much more direct form of communication than language, and fills in the gaps where language cannot suffice. “To be honest, I don't think art can ever be fully explained in words. According to ancient Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism, when two kinds of energies collide, a new energy emerges. This new energy is unidentified, just like the feeling visitors have when they see my works: it can't be expressed in words. I am always searching for those two different kinds of energies that can express my emotions and my understanding of the world.”



Despite his relative youth, Li Hui has long been known as a multimedia pioneer whose innovative installations are instantly recognizable and popular worldwide. His UCCA exhibition is being held concurrently with Reality Impalpable, a solo show at the Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art.



UCCA Director Jérôme Sans says that while Li Hui’s dazzling special effects are the stuff of science fiction, his themes are eternal. “On some level, all of Li Hui’s works explore questions of life and death, existence and transcendence, materiality and spirituality, technology and humanity. V is a collision of energies, a paradox of symmetry and asymmetry, a brief glimpse into an unfathomable, inexpressible, terrifying post-human future.”