Performance Artist Li Wei
Beijing performance artist Li Wei has hung outside skyscrapers, burst headfirst through car windshields and buried his upper body in sand, all in the name of art. Alexandra Carroll spoke to him before he plummeted into Victoria Harbor in his first Hong Kong performance.
HK Magazine: Why give up painting to pursue performance art?
Li Wei: Because performance art is a better tool to transmit my ideas than painting is. It’s not simply a mirror to what I’m thinking – it’s not just a line on a canvas – it’s using the body as a way of transmitting messages.
HK: What do you say to critics who think your art is just dangerous stunts?
LW: There are people who think what I do is too dangerous – that there is no need to do something that dangerous. But at the same time, some of my friends who are also artists and some audiences who criticize me in this way aren’t saying that what I’m doing is a good or bad way of expressing my ideas – they just think it’s dangerous.
HK: Have you ever been badly injured?
LW: I did a performance where I was falling into glass, a mirror – that was really dangerous. During the performance, the rope that held my legs snapped, and it took them over five minutes to free me. I was cut around the neck. The audience in front of me was already quite worried about the situation and this made them really worry.
HK: Do you think people find this element of danger exciting?
LW: Of course. The majority of the audience likes that feeling of danger and finds it really exciting – but people have different kinds of reactions. And it is even better for me when the audience is worried because my influence, and my message, becomes greater. When the audience is in a situation where they think something can go wrong, they think about my message. They start to consider what is reality and what is illusion.
HK: How does this element of danger help you express your ideas?
LW: There is something really dangerous in today’s society – we have a different situation now. Before, people believed that there was a difference between right and wrong, but now there is this dangerous persuasion: People know when they are doing something wrong but they feel they have to do it anyway. There’s no way out. It’s very dangerous because we’re not completely free to follow our own way of thinking.
HK: Why do your performances involve ropes and mirrors to create illusions?
LW: I believe all that we see now is an illusory reality. We have a perception of a reality which is more an illusion because what we see with our own eyes is different to what we’ve been told is reality. It’s dangerous because there is someone above us with the power to create this illusory reality and people are powerless to find out which is the illusion and which is the reality.