Beili Liu

Beili Liu is an amazing artist working in installation and 2D art. I'm struggling right now to find the balance between these two areas of my own work so I find her to be an inspiration. I found her featured on Christine Mauersberger's blog.

Here's a few of her impressive works and excerpts from her website.

Ailment

In Chinese tradition, spirit money is burnt for ancestors and spirits in the after world as an offering. Aliment is made from approximately 5000 sheets of Chinese spirit money, each folded in half, and tightly spiraled into a solid wheel. On one side, the rich and warm texture shimmers of silver and gold, on the other side, dense layers of paper edges are charred black. The partial burning, transforms the piece into a symbolic gateway, one side facing the present, the other side bridging to the afterworld.

Yun Yan

“Yun Yan” stands for “cloud and smoke” in Chinese, and refers to things temporal and fleeting in life. Each mark is drawn using a stick of burning incense lightly brushing onto the surface of the rice paper.

Void

Each of the 49 layers of silk organza holds a delicate ring drawn with a burning incense. Each ring reduces in size until it recedes to a small circle. Through the void of the layering black silk, the spectator is drawn to a subtle hint of light at the end of the portal.

Lure/Rise

"The ancient Chinese legend of the red thread tells that when children are born, invisible red threads connect them to the ones whom they are fated to be with. Over the years of their lives they come closer and eventurally find each other, overcoming the distance between, and cultural and social divides.

Red Thread Legend Series is a group of installations inspired by this tale. Lure/Forest is the first project of the series.

The installation makes use of thousands of hand spiraled coils of red thread suspended from the ceiling of the gallery. Each disk is connected to another, as a “couple”, and each pair is made from a single thread. Every coil is pierced in the center by a sewing needle, which enables the suspension of the disks a few inches from the ground. Subtle air currents set the red disks swaying and turning slowly as the loose strands of thread on the floor drift and become entangled.

Here's a video interview with her that I enjoyed and wanted to share. Happy New Year.