Liu Liyun
Born in 1974; 1997, Graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Art (BA); 2000, Graduated from Kent Institute of Art and Design in UK (MFA) ; lives and works in Beijing
2001 Materialistic Life, Passage Gallery of CAFA, Beijing, China
2006 Disappearing: Liu Liyun Work Exhibition, Galerie Albrecht, Munchen, Germany
2009 Liu Liyun & Miao Xiaochun Art Work Exhibition, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2009 Inheritance and Innovation of Contemporary Ink, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2009 Metropolis Now: A Selection of Chinese Contemporary Art, Meridian International Center, Washington, U.S.A
2009 Attituds: Female contemporary Art in China, European Contemporary Art Center, Brussels, Belgium
2010 Reshaping History, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2010 Liu Liyun, Liu Liyu Work Exhibition, Art Link Art, Beijing, China
2011 1+1 Art Project -Mainlang ,Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China; Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, China; Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
2012 Alles unter dem Himmel gehört allen: Contemporary Public Art from China, Kassel, Germany
2012 The Art of Contrast-Inheritanne and Development, Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum, Suzhou, China
2013 Kassel-Zhangzhou Contemporary Chinese Public Art Exhibition, Zhangzhou, China
The meaning of the word “Yoga” is essentially “link”, implying both the bond that binds nature and man, and the connection linking body, mind and spirit. I believe the Christian trinity, the Chinese’ union of man and the heavens (tian ren he yi) and the Indian yogic “union of body, mind and spirit” are in fact one and the same thing. Since 2009, I have focused on human perception, experience and the connection linking the self and nature, with any resultant artworks being but a single component of these inquiries. Humankind is but a single modicum within the spaces of the universe, smaller than a particle of dust, but larger in being a part of the generative processes of the natural world (zao-hua); a holistic entity, inseparable from the natural world. However, in all their arrogance, people have already transformed the natural world into something ferocious, with contemporary China representing the archetype for just such a critical state. What can art do here? I want to reawaken the little respect for nature that still lingers in our hearts and thoughts about the future and believe artworks should spring forth from the heart, as a neat bond between the origin and the manifold entities that compose the natural world, regardless of what methods are used to express this. I also feel that artworks oughtn’t to emerge from world-weary musings, but rather spontaneously, as an expression of intelligence and feeling.