Li Lang

b. 1969, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

Beginning his photographic career in the 1990s, Li was awarded The Special Jury Prize by Lianzhou Foto Festival in 2014 with Father and the Motherjones Medal of Excellence in 1999 with The Yi People. Li’s work has been widely exhibited in China and abroad. His work is collected by the Art Gallery of Ontario in Canada, Guangdong Museum of Art and Shanghai Art Museum in China, Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno in Spain and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in USA.

Li has often experimented with a deliberately subjective approach in his documentary, as it highlights the photographer’s perspective of the subject (Portraits of the Yi and Land of the Yi) or the visual language at play (Landscapes).

Li currently works and lives in Chengdu, China.

Artworks (20)

Li Lang

“Father 1927.12.03 - 2010.08.27”, My Father's Last Portrait B

Li Lang

"Father 1927.12.03 - 2010.08.27", My Father's Last Portrait B (detail)

Li Lang

“Father 1927.12.03 - 2010.08.27”, My Father's Last Portrait A

Li Lang

“Father 1927.12.03 - 2010.08.27”, My Father's Last Portrait C

Li Lang

“Father 1927.12.03 - 2010.08.27”, Body A

Li Lang

“Father 1927.12.03 - 2010.08.27”, Body B

Li Lang

“Father 1927.12.03 - 2010.08.27”, Father’s Pension: 32,136 RMB

Li Lang

“Father 1927.12.03 - 2010.08.27”, Father’s Pension: 32,136 RMB (detail)

Father

2010-2014

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In this series, Li uses documentation to create a deeply imaginative and emotive work. The artist spent three years to hand-write the date of each day his father lived in his 82 years of life, directly on the blackand- white photographs of his father’s body and belongings. The creative process was one of mourning, of resurrecting and safeguarding the life of a late parent against oblivion. For all the realism in its subject and visuals, Father accents the photographer’s personal involvement through the act of creation, showcasing the formal and intellectual experimentation that evolves in his work.

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