Life in the Fast Lane

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Dangerously hanging from buildings, bridges, and a wide array of architectural structures, artist Lie Wei creates uncanny photos of himself and his cronies in suspended incredulity and sense of vertigo — all in the name of art and expression. Utilizing his incredible acrobatic skills which he has achieved through his years of martial arts, the images are very real in every sense, and not photoshopped.

Live at the High Place. Expressing the current Chinese preoccupation with the
purist of prosperity, Li pilots a BMW convertible over rooftops of Beijing, with
friends precariously grabbing onto the ankles of those in front of them,
hanging on for the ride to pursue wealth and luxury.

The staged fantasies take as much as 6 months to set up, requiring massive crews to organize props including smoke, mirrors, cranes, and carefully hidden thin steel wires tied on his ankles to hold himself up. After the shots are taken, Li removes any lingering traces of wires by computer.

Beyond Gravity

Currently living in Beijing, the father of one takes his shoots across Hong Kong and China for a myriad of near-impossible positions and situations — being thrown and pushed off of buildings and rooftops, and treacherously hanging from scaffolding and structures.

“One of the most difficult and expensive shots was where myself and 12 people were flying behind a car and we had to use a lot of cranes to keep us all suspended.” the Chinese artist tells The Telegraph.

“I am fascinated by the unstable and dangerous sides of art and I hope my works reflect these aspects.” he says.

“Sometimes I am in real danger — I have to hang myself high with steel wires and people do get a little worried for me — but I am fine.”

“My favorite photograph features my daughter holding some helium balloons and I am standing on them in mid air. It was lovely working with my daughter and the photo represents my feelings.”

Producing works since 1999, the 40 year old conceptual artist says, “I like to achieve the impossible. I have hurtled to the earth like a meteorite and flown through the air. My pictures show the unstable. There’s a lot of danger and I love to create that feeling in my work.”

“Some of the images can be really complex and take up to 6 months to put together whereas some are very simple and can be planned in a sketch and shot immediately.”

“The images can involve me getting battered around a bit — most times I will pick up an injury from the stunt wires; one time I got my head stuck in a pane of smashed glass.”

“It can be dangerous, but I like to ride that line. To me it’s worth it to defy gravity or fly through the air.”

“People are controlled by a strong power.” says Li. “Now, we restart to think about market economy and planned economy. So I wanna use vertigo to express an unstable and unclear condition.”

Never Say Failure. Slam-dunking his body into a basketball hoop is Li Wei’s artistic assertion that even against impossible odds, where there is a will, there is always a way.

Born in Hubei in 1970, Li Wei moved to Beijing at the age of 19 in pursuit of fame and fortune.

Lacking the academic qualifications to be admitted into the prestigious government-run Central Academy of Art, Li Wei enrolled at the privately-run Oriental Arts College in 1993 where he studied painting, but dropped out after 1 year when he felt he wasn’t learning anything from traditionally-trained art teachers.

Bright Apex

A Pause for Humanity

Like most starving artists, he took on numerous low-paying jobs to survive, but no matter how much and hard he worked, there was never the money or time left to pursue his own art.

“I had to paint and worked. I’ve tried various jobs, such as book sale, advertisement corporation, design for films, etc. I had to face both realities in making a living and in creating artworks. Giving up my creating times for living.

“My thoughts changed gradually. Chinese Art world was not open at that time, it’s difficult to get into. I had no chances to show my works to public until my first exhibition which was curated by 7 of my friends in 1999. After 2000, my chances for exhibition became more and more.”

Live at the High Place 1

On the Surface of the Earth

Love Meets 15m

Li decided to quit his dead-end jobs and changed his artistic direction to teach himself photography, video, and performance art, which enabled him to create and manipulate his own fantasy realities.

In 2002, the artist created his challenging series of ‘Falls,’ combining his acrobatics skills with wires and scaffolding. Depicting his head and chest embedded in the blacktop of a country road in Li Wei Falls from the Sky, his rigid legs are pointing up to the sky resembling a human rocket that’s just crashed into the earth.

Li Wei comments on China’s rapidly changing and unfamiliar society today, “If you picture someone falling to earth from another planet, there would really be no soft landing, whether the landing were in China or in another part of the world.”

“This feeling of having fallen headfirst into the unknown and of having nothing firm under one’s feet is familiar to everyone. One doesn’t have to actually fall from another planet to feel that way.”

Defying gravity by flying out from a skyscraper window in Beijing’s Central Business District like Superman, Li Wei’s ‘Free Degree 29 Levels of Freedom’ series represent the feelings of many Beijing office workers who would love to escape their dreary jobs, but can’t since their work is essential for personal survival as well as for the continued expansion of China’s economy.

29 Levels of Freedom

29 Levels of Freedom

Free Degree Over 25th Story

But even the daredevil artist had reservations about the execution of these works. “I was in fact dangling from the 29th floor of Beijing office complex and needed really large, muscular people to hold onto my ankles. There are not many large, muscular people in Beijing. But finally I did find several, and fortunately for me, it all worked out and I am still here.”

While walking through Beijing’s 798 Art District in 2007, Li happened across a large plastic arm emerging from the upper story of a building which was part an art installation. Using this prop for his works of ‘ Illusory Reality,’ the pieces depict his insight into the psychological state of the Chinese people during this time of unprecedented social transition.

Illusory Reality

Illusory Reality

“Most Chinese civilians are experiencing individual freedom unheard of since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in1949. But at the back of their minds they also know that the long, and ever-present arm of the Chinese government can sweep in any at any moment, changing their destiny, resulting in a whiplash of anxiety.”

In High Place

Best Me, Tread on Me

Dream-like Love

Live at the High Place

Love at the Ribbons

Visit Lie Wei’s website to learn more. All photos property of Li Wei.

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