The Spectator

Baoxun LI often stares at his surroundings with a "spectator" attitude. He handles everything calmly and effectively. He also looks at the society in daily life with timeless methods to solidify the role of time in painting objects.
His work in recent years is habitually divided into three parts. The first one is the relatively early character series (2012-2014), which focuses on the living conditions of modern people. Another one is scene painting (2016-2017). The size of the work is larger and the messy sense would guide the audience to imagine what has happened before. This post-narrative hints the truth covered by the image and is full of ritual. The third part is of some objects that are not easy to be concerned with (2015-2018). The main objects are seemingly inanimate objects, as if they are frozen in space and time, but they have inexplicable gravitational attraction.
If the object is based on painting and becomes a hint of narrative support, it goes beyond physicality to some extent. The artist will create a necessary story through the control of the color, the prudent composition, and the changeable shape. Then the object has become an excuse. Moreover, it often appears that there is not much connection between different series of works, nor how tight the logic is. But it reflects the culture significance formed by extensive exploration and thinking under the constant trial and point-like thinking phenomena.
Baoxun LI's paintings do not have much bright colors. On the contrary, the screen is gray and avoiding the sun, with a slightly rough brushstroke, a bland and unconventional theme, showing a cool and dark sense. It is difficult to be shocked, but the hidden intentions behind his works refer to the reality which are like tragedies and can’t be ignored. Baoxun LI's path of thinking provides clues for his paintings. He mentioned Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein's "Aesthetics of Daily Life" and shifted his attention to some social groups and the re-recognition of human socialization. He hopes to find the deep structure of remanufacturing of his paintings through various practices of painting, which is used here as a phenomenon and related activities. Obviously, his methodology also uses structuralism, which is very fashionable, as if the methods of Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, etc. were universally used. Indeed, in the application of painting, those visible objects, scenes, and people have no meaning for themselves. Their meaning is determined by the relationship between certain subjective factors in the setting situation.

As far as the work is concerned, if it is only the presentation of an image, how do you understand the artist's intention in the face of ambiguous and plausible images? At this point, the title will be the most direct reliance. The title may be one or two words, or it may be a phrase. In short, the "text" is accurate and abstract. It is very interesting that the title of Baoxun LI's works is deliberate. They remove the sense of inexplicability reflected in the painting itself. During the viewing, a broad and fuzzy initial view is focused on the artist's settings by a few short words. The titles are not explained, but bring people in. This approach is commonplace, allowing text and painting to be juxtaposed. It points somewhere, but throws a question to the audience at the same time and makes them participated in. The artist, the audience, the work, the description behind the work, and the interrelationship between the parties are involved in a certain situation. The final one is completed because of an act of work.
His indoor scenes are disorderly, giving people a sense of "first look" or "last look". Switching each painting is like another start or end, superimposing the tips of the title, full of uncertainties and haze in the turmoil. The innocent geese, apparently threatened by some kind of outside world, made a wary gesture of facing back and sideways. What's inside those sleeve and sleeveless bags? Will it bring you soft warmth, or another period of displacement? The bone that had already died was colored and tried to pretend to be bloody. Eggs were vulnerable, but they were still hard frailly. There are also people, wood boards, gimmicks, and so on. The screenshots in these lives are very straightforward. Baoxun LI uses paintings to describe his positions, judgments, and logics. Of course, there are also positive solutions and misunderstandings. I think that all points to the peace of mind, like a stone.
Baoxun LI is an artist who doesn’t want to meet and please. He has been paying attention to all kinds of problems. In his widely drawn and unexpected works, the images reveal gloomy, indifferent and seemingly careless. In the face of melancholy, helplessness, and uneasy predicament, people find vaguely lonely, helpless, and hidden struggles, and thus are full of power in the internal examination of image transmission. He shows some insights through the seemingly unintentional expressions of the works, using the title to clarify the path between the viewer and the painting. He can make more appropriate use of narrative, to describe some of the fragments of the current situation, based on the status of people in society, and the recent understanding of the rules and human nature. Those seemingly ordinary and neglected scenes and objects are moved to the screen by Baoxun LI, as if they are suddenly placed in the center of the stage and chasing lights. They stay in their former state, and are made into themes between the cold-handed and impermanent. People, stones, bags, and so on. Each object is silently proclaiming the state of being. It appears to be weak, but it is felt and realized by him. He uses elegant and cold painting to speak for them. From an outside perspective, it seems that only one role conversion has been completed. However, Baoxun LI is good at observing. Using these often overlooked objects, he cleverly and calmly expresses his thoughts on the experience and the reality he sees, as well as his increasingly clear judgments. Some of the phenomena and people that are related or unrelated to him have been remanufactured to complete the re-narration of the painting and the title. With his personal experience and onlookers, he constantly cuts through appearances to the essence and tries to improve his cognitive evolution. By the form of art, he completes the writing of deliberate attention to problems in social clues.
Everything grows vigorously, and I pursue its doctrine.
 

Yongjin CHEN at Wuhan Painting Academy

June 2018