LIU Xiaodong’s Solo Exhibition: ESLITE GALLERY Beijing

"The devotees covered the distance of 190 kilometers on foot, in four days and four nights. They stopped to celebrate Matsu's birthday at the Feng Tian Temple for two days, before heading back to Dajia, traversing another 190 kilometers.

Having followed Matsu for 96 hours, I've grown fonder of that litter. Although there were too many people for me to get closer, I constantly felt drawn to an intangible force that made me forget my mundane worries."

 

Written by LIU Xiaodong in Diary during the Dajia Matsu Pilgrimage.

Shifting his focus onto the gambling tables in Macau, Liu captured the vivid scenes in the Grand Lisboa and the L’Arc Hotel in his ten paintings. In the two paintings Round Tables and Long Table, the complex lines forming the casino space are intricately intertwined with the various bright colors of the grand decoration. The densely packed characters, each engaged in their own business at hand, are much like a thousand ripples spreading across a still lake, inevitably reminding viewers of some kind of game in loops.

“Photos were not allowed in there. However, as I was with their boss, I pretended to be having a phone call, while taking photos in secret. There was a lot of hustle and bustle in the Grand Lisboa, with the crowds and the red carpet. Hotel Lisboa, on the other hand, is in an old round building, very small and very much a proper casino.

 

As I took more pictures, I was less cautious and even followed a security guard, who happened to turn around and caught me red-handed. The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by about half a dozen guards. I still acted as if I was on the phone …”

 

WRITTEN BY LIU XIAODONG IN Diary: Painting Experience in Macau.

“Photos are not allowed in casinos”, so Liu adapted his measures to the reality, recording the details of the scene like a detective. Despite knowing photos were not allowed, he still snapped pictures in secret like an intelligence officer on a mission, in order to grasp the architecture, space, characters, and the atmosphere in motion of the scene in the casino. Then, he combed through his thoughts and feelings with his diaries and memory, transforming them into vivid expressions in his paintings. 

This series originated from Liu’s visit back to Heitukeng in 2019, his hometown in Jincheng in Northeast China. In the following two years, he created works that reflected the daily lives of his family, and, building on them, developed more rich stories about life in Northeast China, such as the real village life lived by his family and friends. 

The “Hometown in Northeast China” series illustrates different kinds of interpersonal relationships. For example, On the Way to Give a Gift, Elder Brothers Fixing a Lock, and Elder Brothers Moving Stones, among many others, shine with unadorned human touch, yet they also leave vast room for imagination in his ways of expression for details. He depicts his deep affection for his hometown with down-to-earth brush strokes, while showing the changes his hometown went through in the tides of urbanization from a subtle perspective.