The Astonishing Li Wei

Everyone knows I love a floater, so when M. Scott Brauer commented on the Chinese photography post and said he wished I’d included Li Wei, I grab...

Everyone knows I love a floater, so when M. Scott Brauer commented on the Chinese photography post and said he wished I’d included Li Wei, I grabbed the folder of Wei’s work that’s been burning a hole on my desktop and uploaded it with glee.

Wei is a photographer and performance artist who puts himself in gravity-defying poses, often with the use of harnesses. Thirty-seven-year-old Wei intentionally seeks to surprise and shock the viewer:

“The first reaction is astonishment. Some people think they are full of sense of humor. They are curious about how I did this. Sometimes I am in real danger; I have to hang myself high with steel
wires and people do get a little worried for me, but I am fine. My work and artistic experience are characterized by a unique
specificity and particularity. My artistic language is universal and
deals with themes about contemporary politics and society using symbols
understood by everyone in every part of the world. I am fascinated by
the unstable and dangerous sides of art and I hope my works reflect
these aspects.”

Love Meets 22m, 2008

Life at the High Place 2, 2008

Life at the High Place 1, 2007

Bright Apex, 2007

Never Say Failure 1, 2007

On the Earth’s Surface, 2004

Love at the High Place 1, 2004

25 Levels of Freedom, 2004

29 Levels of Freedom, 2003

I think my favorite of Wei’s work may be the mini series Li Wei falls to…,
in which Wei finds himself upside down in various contexts. Wei says
this series “has led my work to be recognized as the perfect metaphor
for the Chinese conquest of the world. In these, my body crashes like a
meteorite in different contexts.”

So awesome.

Li Wei Falls to Lake Como