ArtSlant Review

LURE: Installation Art by Beili Liu

Lure: Chinese-American Contemporary Artist Beili Liu Explores the Ties that Bind Lovers
Chinese Culture Center
750 Kearny Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108
May 9, 2008 – July 5, 2008

Lure is the inaugural exhibit in the Chinese Cultural Center’s new Xin Rui (fresh, sharp) series, showcasing contemporary Chinese-American artists. Beili Liu, who teaches in Michigan, has a national reputation —she recently created an installation for the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, for example— and her elegant, beautiful work often treats Chinese-American biculturalism, drawing on tradition, but in a contemporary and cosmopolitan manner. Lure, the large installation that dominates the gallery, is a swath of red flowerlike discs suspended mid-air, quivering with the faintest breeze; the viewer stands as if in a field of swaying poppies, or by a pond of undulating lily pads. Each of the thousands of flowers is a spiral of red thread coiled around a needle and hung from the ceiling; the loose ends of each flower coil dangle onto the floor in whorls and loops, but each is connected with another flower, illustrating the Yuan fen belief that lovers are connected from birth by the old man under the moon, Yue Lao, by an invisible red thread and that they will inevitably be united, regardless of obstacles. Read More »

Lure/惑 by Beili Liu
劉北立大型裝置藝術展: 惑
Official Selection of the San Francisco International Arts Festival
舊金山國際藝術節指定展覽
11th Annual United States of Asian America Festival
11屆亞美藝術節指定展覽
Curated by Abby Chen
策展人: 陳暢

Runs May 9 – July 5th, 2008
Chinese Culture Center Gallery
750 Kearny Street, Third Floor (inside the Hilton Hotel).
Gallery Hours Tue.-Sat, 10-4
Admission: Free

“Such a moving presence…” – Suspended, Subjunctive
“Absolutely stunning…A must see!” – Flo Oy Wong
“Poetic…” – Jay Xu, Director of Asian Art Museum
“Don’t Miss!” – SF Chronicle/96 Hours
“Lure” is emotional, meticulous, and, yes, beautiful.” – SF Weekly
“Legend Made Visible” – SF Examiner

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