Li Ning

Interview and Art Review by Vera Bertran

I devote a lot of time to exploring galleries, graduate exhibits, art fairs, and the internet in search of up-and-coming contemporary artists. Recently I ended up my search seeing something different; this search led me to the work of artist Li Ning.

Li Ning is committed to traditional art techniques. The primary mediums he employs in his work are oil painting and drawing, and the themes that predominate in works include portraiture, figurative landscapes, and historical and imaginary scenes.

Often we tend to look at the artwork and only see a picture. Li Ning's artworks depict a message to the viewer. His art speaks with the audience through allegories, metaphors, stories, and symbols that evoke deep layers of memories, feelings and imagination.

Have you ever heard of a universe between the natural and spiritual worlds? One that bridges the gap between sensory reality and the mystical world of the divine? This transitional realm encourages imaginative consciousness and permits cognitive imagination to flourish. It is the universe of the image, the faculty of perception and vision; it is the home of imaginative force. The "imaginal" is analogous to the perceptible, everyday world around us but not immediately noticeable to the senses, like a mirror reflecting something without itself partaking in the physical properties of that which is reflected, as opposed to fantasy producing "the imaginary," which can be limiting in its insistence on the "unreal".

Henry Corbin, a French philosopher, friend and colleague of Carl Jung, referred to it as 'Mundus Imaginalis'. This concept captures the fundamental key to working with symbols and the creative imagination, allowing the psyche to move beyond the limiting constraints and one-sided attitude of the ego.

Li Ning's works allow us to encounter the imaginal in new and intriguing ways.

It came to my attention that his artwork mainly focuses on three topics.

Many of Li Ning's works are figurative landscapes with figures in enigmatic, melancholic, abandoned landscapes where all time and space bounds have been erased. Even if these images do not belong to specific times and places, the themes Li Ning raises in these works are relevant.

The names of the paintings have a significant impact on how people perceive them because they pose a question, jolt viewers, out of their routines, and inspire them to think philosophically about life, history and our future.

''Among the Wreckage of War '', ''Coronation – an allegory of dictator'', ''Civilization'', ''Room of Madness'', every work tells a story or even tries to predict the future.

In the painting ''Bonfire – Secret Garden'' we see the figure of a hanged man. Refer to tarot cards (Tarot is believed to be a journey into yourself to attune and discover your spiritual centre ), interprets the Hanged Man as a card about waiting, and see a good pull as a pause before a big event occurs.

An owl sits on a branch nearby. Owls symbolise wisdom, knowledge, change, transformation, and faith in the unknown. They connect to the spiritual meaning of "death," a new start with a better understanding and a more evolved point of view. Down we see the big fire; It is commonly referred to as the 'eternal flame', which refers to the symbolic flame that protects life. It is believed that as long as the flame continues to burn, life will remain forever in the world. In painting, we also see the children. As yet innocent of life, the child portrays the beginning, the origin of all. It symbolizes a primordial unity before differentiation has taken place.

I would interpretative this painting as humanity is at a crossroads, and all factors point to a new age. "The end of the world" has constantly tormented humanity. However, unlike past stories in which the apocalypse was caused by an outside phenomenon, such as an asteroid, now everything shows that mankind is entirely to blame for the impending mass extinction.

The artwork interacts with our mental landscapes and encourages poetic reinvention. It also shows that art can converse with the problems and complexities of the world around us. Earth, humans, non-humans, and things are all connected in a vast network.

Collective re-enchantment means paying more attention to these rhythms, looking more closely at other paths, and being aware of longer time scales and the invisible structures that make the world move.

We also see some portrait paintings. It looks like, through these works, Li Ning wants to show different conditions of consciousness; states of mind-expectation for something, anxiety or fundamental solitude of human existence. These paintings can be characterised as a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional.

Toys are the subject of another painting series by the artist.

In these intimidating and thoughtfully arranged compositions, Li Ning creates the connection between memory and time with distinctive light and object arrangements.

In one painting, toys are sitting in the line on top of the sofa under the clock. Toys can be associated with our memories. Our memories shape who we are. They form our perception of the world and help us forecast what is to come. A clock is a visual reminder that nothing remains permanent in life and that everything changes at some point. Li Ning's inspiration for this series came from the stream-of-consciousness method, preciously from Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time novel. Toys point to the sentiments and infatuations of childhood. They objectify longings. They exist as inorganic reminders of childhood innocence, jubilation, and gratification. Toys were a big part of your childhood life; they gave a wave of nostalgia and memories.

A moment of appreciation rather than merely remembrance results from seeing them again since it triggers an uncontrollable memory and serves as a portal to the past.

Li Ning has created a distinct visual language and aesthetic. He invites us to see the world as a magical panorama with the utmost proficiency. Through his paintings, we gain a deep thoughts on our life and the universe around us.

I feel that much of his art continues the legacy of Symbolism, the art movement in the late 1800s that used new, often abstract ways to show psychological truth and the idea that there was a spiritual reality behind the physical world. Symbolists tried to give shape to things that couldn't be put into words, like dreams and visions. They emphasised emotions, ideas, subjectivity, and feelings more than reality and often wrote about religious mysticism and death.

I can also see some elements of Magical Realism in Li Ning's work.

The term was used to describe works of art that mixed real-world details with mysterious, disturbing, mythological, or dream-like ones.

A stylised medley of stories and visual narratives could be used to define Li Ning's artwork. His colourful, symbolic paintings evoke memories, feelings, and emotions.

A keen spatial perception adds depth and breadth to Li Ning's exquisitely orchestrated compositions. Realistic and imaginative elements that are stimulating are perfectly balanced and synchronised.

Although Li Ning's lyrical style may recall that of Symbolism even at first glance, he expresses his own contemporary artistic vocabulary imbued with metaphorical imagery.

By Vera Bertran

VB: You graduated from the Royal College of Art, London. This institution is related to well-known names from the history of contemporary art. Why did you choose to study art, and why at this particular college?

I was born in a family of artists. In three generations, most of my family members are artists. Thus, the elements of art fulfilled my childhood memory. What impressed me the most is the experience when I stood in front of the works of Renaissance painters in the Louvre Palace in my teenage time. Those portraits, myths, and allegories revealed to me how divine and powerful can art be. The silent masterpieces contain another dimension of time and manifest that painting is the most internal form of art which affect people in a most consistent and subtle way. People fade away, but paintings continue as abodes for them to live on. This divine quality of painting rooted deeply in my heart and directly influenced my understanding of art.

Royal College of Art has its profound history and relates to many great names of contemporary artists. This is one reason why I choose to study there. Also, Royal College of Art is one of the few institutions that keep the major “Painting”, to preserve the importance of painting in the context of contemporary art. I am very lucky to meet Emma Talbot there, who is always very stimulative and encouraging to my works as my tutor, also as my friend.

VB: Spirituality and metaphysics themes are prevalent in many of your works. Can you explain where this interest comes from?

I was inspired by Alessandro Botticelli and Leonardo Da Vinci, as their works transmit a sense of poetic, mysterious and metaphysical meanings beyond the physical forms. The more I study those works, the more details I discover, and the more I am dragged in. I realized that figurative paintings could transcend figurative forms to explore so much more possibilities, not just imitating what we see. A good painting tells its audiences not only to look and enjoy, but also to feel and discover.

VB: What does “spiritual imagination” mean for you? How does it manifest in your work?

By observing, we can find similarities between different objects. Therefore, sometimes the most irrelevant tiny objects can play important characters in an epic painting. For example, regarding my own experiences, on a heap of stones and woods, altars and columns can be seen. On pots of houseplants, gardens and jungles can be seen. We can create figures according to our own forms with deformation to some extent. As long as any imaginary creatures still resemble the basic human form, we can use ourselves or anyone as models to create their movements, then fusing features from other creatures and distorting the whole proportion to make them look ridiculous or terrifying. So, I believe “imagination” works best when we are able to observe and connect different objects, and it can help us create any forms we want convincingly. Meanwhile, we should endow our imagination with clearly oriented meanings, fitting all the forms for purposes rather than create a Frankenstein.

VB: How important is it for you to reach a larger audience and influence how things are perceived in society?

It is a reward for an artist to have audiences who understand his/her works. I care more about individuals than “a larger audience”. I care about what a person is thinking while looking at my work, and how he/she is connected with it emotionally. The individual’s feelings and opinions are great complements to improve my future work.

I would like to remind people the important role of painting in contemporary art. Painting is the most valuable gift for human. From the history of painting, we learn from masters the way of observing, organizing forms and creating figures. Those are essential skills for painters, no matter what time we live. By learning from them sincerely, we can have better self-consciousness to explore something original. What makes a painter unique is not the superfluous appearances of works, it is something deeper, regarding internal world, spirit, and love.

VB: Many people are entirely excluding the spiritual and metaphysical aspects of life. Do you want your art to convince them to rethink?

I believe it is human nature to have spiritual and metaphysical experiences in life, for instance, our fear towards darkness. It is the exact reason why we create ghosts. There is a psychological analysis in the book ‘Uncanny’ by Sigmond Freud. It analyses one person’s uncanny feeling when he/she keeps seeing the same number accidentally. This “uncanny” experience exactly relates to human’s spiritual and metaphysical imagination. It has dominant power over our emotion as it is rooted in our nature. My artworks reflect my own fantasies and concepts, and they may remind people of their own experiences and imaginations.

VB: Could you please explain the process? How do you begin an artwork?

I remember André Gide’s words in his book ‘Fruits of the Earth’: “follow the light like one who holds the light in hand.” When forms start to manifest in the painting, they also gradually detach themselves from their creator to become independent entities. They would tell me what details they want around them and guide me where to proceed. During the process, I make choices according to the topic of the painting, sometimes I even make choices purely according to the arrangement of lines and shapes. Lines and shapes are like notes in a symphony, so they need to be in harmony and accurate to possess magical power.

VB: After intensely studying your works, I also see symbolic elements in them. Where do you get ideas for your artwork? Are you creating artworks also from personal impressions?

It is about the abilities of observing and connecting things to one another. We need to look beyond objects and discover their potential similarity to something else. Like I said before, even most irrelevant tiny objects have potential similarity to something epic. On many occasions, they have similarity in profile and shape, and they just vary from sizes, details, and textures. Stones can be altars, woods can be columns, tangled vines can be crowns. I am good at observing ordinary objects and use my imagination on them. Imagination creates symbols, as a heap of stones and woods are symbols of relic and death, tangled vines are symbols of coronation and power, etc.

VB: Do you believe that artist has to bring personality into his work?

Artist’s personality inevitably involved in his/her works. It appears in every stroke he/she paints, every line he/she draws. This is why painting is one of the most honest forms of art, as one’s true character will expose in one’s work naturally.

And for this exact reason. I believe a painter should focus less on bringing personality into works, instead he/she should respect subjects he/she depicts as independent entities. His/her job is just to serve those characters in the painting. I admire Gustave Flaubert’s attitude, which is to manifest art and shroud the artist.

VB: Can art be a physical manifestation of an artist’s thoughts? What is your art manifesto?

Art can be a physical manifestation of an artist’s heart. Through the artist’s heart, audiences discover his/her thoughts. Heart is an infinite extension of consciousness, while thought is an organized consciousness. Thus, I believe art is more based on instinct, while thought is based on rationality.

I do not have an “art manifesto”. In my art career, I wish I could always keep the most possibilities rather than be defined by a “manifesto”. Instead, there is one remark from Russell that I would like to keep in mind, and this is my version of it: “The muse of art is a cool lover. Only by enthusiastic hands holding the sword of calm, one could possibly touch her heart.”

VB: Is recognition important to you?

Recognition is important to every artist, but it is not vital. The fairest judge of recognition is time. Rembrandt’s late works did not get public recognition, but time proved his greatness. The same happened to Vermeer, Van Gogh, Cezanne, etc. In a way, an artist has this instinct to challenge the public taste, because entering a narrow door is an artist’s path. It explains why the period when an artist paints his/her best works is often not recognized by the public.

VB: What are your future creative plans?

I just started a new series of allegorical works of drawing called “Coronation – an allegory of a dictator”. It will be a group of works, indicating the subject of power and dictatorship by using ironic fantasies and allegories.

In the future, I will keep challenging myself with various subjects, especially those unfamiliar ones. Curiosity is the life of an artist.