LI YAKUN
Oil Painting
Li’s “Wasteland” series is based on the memories of his own life experience. He has tried to create the sense of time, history, and meaning of life in a forest through purposeful and intelligent brush strokes and color selection. The full landscape, dark woods and the brightness of the sky in the distance actually constitute his inner world.
The formation of this contemporary art series is a process of repeated communication and conflict with his heart. He has no pre-determined thoughts, including having no final goal. Li feels the ever so slight beat of his heart as he stakes layer upon layer on the canvas. Some of the works in this series have white lines interspersed thought out the images to break the certainty of the image to create ambiguity.
Li hopes to separate himself from the city life by depicting the undeveloped and forgotten thorns surrounding a city; a “primitive” place where branches grow widely. In his opinion the area surrounding a city has more vitality and conforms best to his understanding of the meaning of life.
