Li Young Xiang is an artist whose work prioritizes manual craftsmanship, aligning traditional artistic techniques with a schematic understanding of structures and systems of power. In this series commissioned by the 14th Mercosul Biennial, Li immerses us in a poetic universe that balances visual fabulation—mediated by painting and three-dimensionality—with scientific references, especially those drawn from early Western anatomical studies.
By employing a technique that uses hinges and finely cut, decorated pieces of wood to construct articulated objects with multiple faces, the artist draws a technical parallel to the invasive way Western medicine has historically manipulated, fragmented, and classified marginalized bodies in the name of scientific knowledge. The head appears repeatedly throughout his work in fictional, distorted, and dreamlike forms, deliberately diverging from purely scientific representation to question how this part of the body came to be authorized as a site of dissection and “deep knowledge”.
Li Yong Xiang (China, 1991) uses a variety of media in his practice. His primary interest, however, lies in the cross-border intersections between painting, sculpture, music, and video. Influenced by a reciprocal understanding of diasporic culture and experience, the artist challenges ideas of sovereignty and existing power structures by engaging in contaminations that target mediatic, formal, and cultural specificities. Using techniques associated with Chinese painting traditions, the artist addresses contemporary existential themes such as desire, death, loneliness, and silencing. Recent solo and group exhibitions include the Kunsthalle Mannheim, the Gothenburg Biennale, and Antenna Space (Shanghai). He lives in Berlin, Germany.
