Liu Dao

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Liu Dao
Calligraphy 六島.svg
Liu Dao
Birth name Liu Dao
Born (2006-04-01) April 1, 2006 (age 7)
Shanghai
Nationality Peoples Republic of China
Field Electronic art, digital art, new media art
Patrons Louis Vuitton
Influenced by Jon Kessler, Garry Hill, Jenny Holzer, Ken Rinaldo
Influenced Wang Dongma, Zhang Deli, Rose Tang, Cai Duobao
This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

Liu Dao (a Pinyin phrase meaning "island number 6" - Chinese: 六岛; pinyin: Liù dǎo, Mandarin: [ljôu tɑ̀ʊ] ( listen) is an international multidisciplinary art collective based at the island6 Arts Center in 50 Moganshan Road M50, contemporary art district Shanghai, China.

Liu Dao was founded in 2006 by island6 Arts Center under the direction of French curator Thomas Charvériat. Liu Dao is an electronic art group composed of performance artists, multimedia artists, curators, writers, art critics and engineers. Their work focuses on interactive art installations that explore the effects that “technologies have on our perception and modes of communication”[1] but also on LED art, photography, modern sculpture and paintings.

Liu Dao has exhibited in Albert Benamou Gallery, Galerie Twenty-one and Loft in Paris, Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai (MOCA), Studio Rouge in Shanghai, Rockbund Art Museum, Hong Kong Art Fair, the Louis Vuitton Maison in Taipei and the Louis Vuitton gallery in Macau, Tally Beck Contemporary in New York, SCOPE Art Show in New York and Basel, Gallery Etemad in Dubai and Lotus Arts de Vivre in Bangkok.

Liu Dao artworks were taken into White Rabbit Gallery's collection of Chinese contemporary art in Sydney as "a less literal and more expressionistic lens" of cultural shifts in China,[2] among artworks from artists such as Bingyi and Cang Xin, and in 2010 were brought into the Louis Vuitton gallery of Macau alongside Damien Hirst, Thomas Heatherwick and Cai Guo-Qiang.

In June 2012 LiuDao opened island6 Hong Kong, a new gallery space at No. 1 New Street, in the Sheung Wan district of Hong Kong

Red Gate Gallery is the exclusive representative of Liu Dao in China.

Contents

Production process [edit]

Liu Dao embraces the use of digital technology to express the emotions and thoughts which arise from what it considers the vivid and hectic environment of Shanghai in the 21st Century. The group claims its collective and communal spirit prevents the art from becoming mainstream or stagnant.[3] The majority of Liu Dao’s works involve LEDs. A simple movement is arranged by choreographers and coordinated by in-house art directors, which is then video recorded and turned into an LED representation. Homemade software is used to match colors and to create an animated sequence of bitmaps.

Red Gate Gallery, the oldest private art gallery in China,[4] describes the process of Liu Dao as technology becoming organic: “digital reality comes alive, where it begins to speak, dream, conspire, and seduce.” It refers to the works as “voyeuristic fantasies”, “paraphilia”, and “visually rhyming”.[5]

Collaboration [edit]

As noted by The China Post, all of Liu Dao's works are created by multiple artists, as the group places emphasis on cooperation and collaboration in order to increase the wealth of ideas and evolution of conceptual projects.[6] Artworks are conceived through discussions between a curator and art director in which a curatorial theme is devised, written in a statement, and shared with the artists. After feedback and conceptual development, the artists work with the onsite technicians in order to design the implementation strategy.[7]

The credits for each piece run similar to those found in a film, with writers, directors, models, cameramen, technicians, painters, programmers, choreographers and editors. This process runs as a direct opposite to artists with many employees working for them who are never credited at all.

Philosophy [edit]

Liu Dao’s LED works animate and illuminate short but beautiful glimpses of exposed lives in the fast pace of Beijing and Shanghai in the 21st Century...In the People’s Republic of China, a glimpse can be worth an eternity, and Liu Dao aims to expose that value by encouraging a harmless feeling of warm, irresistible voyeurism into a spectrum of feelings and problems that are well protected by the walls, and to reveal a range of emotions and repeated patterns and lifestyles, reminiscent of the endless circle of male and female needs.[8]
—R. A. Suri, Liu Dao Collective

Themes [edit]

Urbanization [edit]

As China reaches its most extreme period of urbanization toward the end of its Twelfth Five-Year Plan, cities are rife with construction, architectural upheaval and modernization of infrastructure.[9] Many works of Liu Dao manifest these transitions. Urbanization may also be a contributing factor in the collective nature of Liu Dao, as the concentration of people within large cities offers both the potential and the impetus for a greater exchange of ideas between individuals from diverse backgrounds.

History and tradition [edit]

Liu Dao tends to use a multitude of influences, references and styles from Chinese art and Chinese history in their works, such as cranes (the Chinese symbol of longevity),[10] Chinese paper cutting, rice paper, and Maoist and Communist imagery. Similar to the theme of urbanization, the technology and modernity that are found in Shanghai, where Liu Dao are based, are main features of the collective’s topics, as a reverberation of Chinese traditional life becoming “electrified”.[11] Visual compositions often combine LED animation with Chinese paper cuts to take a customary picture and bring it into the 21st Century technological landscape.

Interactivity [edit]

Liu Dao artworks often feature modernized characteristics of conventional art, bringing to light the subject of China’s reaction and contribution to globalization, while artworks "demand" interaction[12] through sensors, motion-tracking devices, GPRS modem controlled videos, or sonar rangefinders which help “artists and technologists actively engage with culture”.[13]

Awards and honors [edit]

In April 2010, Liu Dao was selected by Louis Vuitton for an exhibition curated by Jonathan Thomson in the famous Louis Vuitton Maison designed by Japanese architect Inui Kumiko, to be the second art intervention, after Taiwanese artist Michael Lin to animate their Taipei building. The art space is one of only three sponsored by Louis Vuitton in the world, which have showcased world-renown artists such as Takashi Murakami, Stephen Sprouse and Richard Prince.[14]

In September 2010, Liu Dao was again selected by Louis Vuitton to take part in an art exhibition, Raining Stars, in the Louis Vuitton cultural space in Macau, focusing on the global experience of fireworks.

Liu Dao was nominated for the Sovereign Art Foundation’s annual charity art prize in 2010, and Liu Dao's member Rose Tang had her first solo exhibition, “Roseless”, inaugurated by Latvian president Valdis Zatlers in Shanghai.[15]

Artwork [edit]

Associated art directors [edit]

Artist's Name Country of Nationality Exhibitions
Thomas Charvériat France France "Raining Stars", "Garden of Autumn Vapours”, "Absolute 0:00", "HK Artfair 2010", "Psychic Apparatus", "The Light Fantastic", ”Libido Mortido", "Fakirs", "Placebo”, "LED City"', "30 Degrees", "Synesthesia", "Pi", "The Artist Died Yesterday", "Automata", “Urban Lust”, “Clouds of Crowds", "Zero Gravity", "PlugIt", "Made in Shanghai", "Made in China", Lecture on Digital Arts, "Nuit Blanche", "Eurasia One", "Platform for Urban Investigation II", "Remote/Control", "Stop/over Cities", "Bits, Bytes and Pixels", "Untitled Santa", "I Love LEDs", "Getting Along", "Forward/Backward and Reloading", "Platform for Urban Investigation", "Invisible Layers, Electric Cities", "Everyday Frenzies", "Spring Floods And Peach Petals", Far Beyond The Firewall", "Goddamned Shanghai", "Across the Waibaidu", "Ooh La La!", "Them that Glide Past our Windows", "Dripping with Aurum", "Island of Oddities", "The Secret Collection of Yuan Meng Ch'ien", "The Cat That Eats Diodes", "Need.Want.Hunt.", "Body-City-Mechanism"
Zane Mellupe Latvia Latvia "Raining Stars", "Garden of Autumn Vapours”, "Absolute 0:00", "HK Artfair 2010", "Psychic Apparatus", "The Light Fantastic", ”Libido Mortido", "Fakirs", "Placebo”, "LED City"', "30 Degrees", "Synesthesia", "Pi", "The Artist Died Yesterday", "Automata", “Urban Lust”, “Clouds of Crowds", "Zero Gravity", "PlugIt", "Made in Shanghai", "Made in China"
Antonio Argueta Guatemala Guatemala Spain Spain "Absolute 0:00", "Prophecies", "Plugged In"

Associated curators [edit]

Artist's Name Country of Nationality Exhibitions
Rajath Suri Canada Canada India India "Fakirs", "Placebo”, "LED City"', "30 Degrees", "Synesthesia", "Pi", "The Artist Died Yesterday", "Automata", “Urban Lust”, “Clouds of Crowds", "Zero Gravity", "PlugIt", "Made in Shanghai", "Made in China"
Brian Wallace Australia Australia "Raining Stars", Garden of Autumn Vapours”, "HK Artfair 2010", "The Light Fantastic", "LED City", "HK ArtFair 2011", "Wired Blossoms and Electric Angels"
George Michell Australia Australia "Psychic Apparatus", "30 Degrees", "LED City", "Ooh La La!"
Tally Beck United States USA "Plugged In", "Electric Shanghai", "Sin City"
Jonathan Thomson Australia USA "Raining Stars", "The Light Fantastic"
Ching Ling Loo Singapore Singapore "Spring Floods and Peach Petals", "Goddamned Shanghai", Rockbund Art Museum, "Across the Waibaidu", "Ooh La La", "Them that Glide Past our Windows", "Dripping with Aurum", "Island of Oddities", "The Secret Collection of Yuan Meng Ch'ien" and "The Cat That Eats Diodes"

Since its inception, the collective has evolved to include artists and curators from around the globe. In recent years, the curatorial team has included writer Peter Bradt, who joined Liu Dao in 2010, followed by Jack Kip Mur, Loo Ching Ling 吕晶琳 and Jean Le Guyader in 2011. Liu Dao 2012 also comprehended Katharina Droste, Nicolas Grefenstette, Dave Ahern, Alexia Kalteis and Leela Shanker. The current 2013 collective's list of members include Fabrice Amzel, Yeung Sin Ching 杨倩菁, Guan Yan 官彦, Margaret Johnson, Cecilia Garcia, David Keohane and Melani Murkovic.

Selected exhibitions [edit]

 This section's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (December 2011)
Year Title Venue Location
2013 Body-City-Mechanism island6 Arts Center (m50) Shanghai, China
2013 "Need. Want. Hunt." island6 Arts Center Hong Kong Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2013 The Garden Beneath the Streetlights Bath Street Gallery Auckland Arts Festival Auckland, New Zealand
2013 Singapore Art Fair (with Art Seasons Gallery) Art Stage Singapore Singapore, Singapore
2013 "The Art of Living" Lotus Arts de Vivre Bangkok, Thailand
2013 "Need. Want. Hunt." island6 Arts Center (m50) Shanghai, China
2013 "The Cat That Eats Diodes" island6 Arts Center Hong Kong Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2012 "Open Sky" Changjianghui Contemporary Art Museum 长江汇当代美术馆 Chongqing, China
2012 "Ooh La La" (with Studio Rouge) Studio Rouge 红寨画廊, 策展人乔治米歇尔, curated by Loo Ching Ling and George Michell Shanghai, China
2012 "The Cat That Eats Diodes" island6 Arts Center (m50) Shanghai, China
2012 "Berliner Liste" "(with Pantocrator Gallery)" MUMA Berlin, Germany
2012 "Ruby Roxy Rhino Rouge Rock Hong Kong" Studio Rouge Hong Kong Hong Kong, China
2012 "SH Contemporary Art Fair" "(with Phillipe Staib Gallery)" Shanghai Exhibition Center Shanghai, China
2012 "The Secret Collection of Yüan Meng Ch'ien" island6 Arts Center (m50) Shanghai, China
2012 "Island of Oddities" island6 Arts Center (m50) Shanghai, China
2012 "Dripping with Aurum" island6 Arts Center Hong Kong Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2012 "Them That Glide Past Our Windows" island6 Arts Center (m50) Shanghai, China
2012 "We Dream the Electric City" Hainan Rendezvous, curated by Magda Danysz Hainan, China
2012 "The Rich and the Righteous" In-Sight, organized by Gemelli Turzi Palma de Mallorca, Spain
2012 "Across the Waibaidu" island6 Arts Center (m50) Shanghai, China
2012 "Ooh La La" Studio Rouge, curated by George Michell Shanghai, China
2012 "Wired Blossoms and Electric Angels" The Opposite House (via Red Gate Gallery) Beijing, China
2012 Singapore Art Fair (with Art Seasons Gallery) Art Stage Singapore Singapore, Singapore
2012 "Sin City" Tally Beck Contemporary New York, New York
2011 "RAM Christmas Project 2011" Rockbund Art Museum Shanghai, China
2011 "Ruby, Roxy and the Flaming Lamborghini" Studio Rouge Shanghai, China
2011 "Goddamned Shanghai" island6 Arts Center (m50) Shanghai, China
2011 "Far Beyond The Firewall" island6 Arts Center (m50) Shanghai, China
2011 "Middle East, Middle Kingdom" Gallery Etemad Dubai
2011 "SH Contemporary Art Fair 2011" Shanghai Exhibition Center Shanghai, China
2011 "20 Years - Two Generations of Artists at Red Gate" island6 Arts Center (m50), curated by Brian Wallace (Red Gate Gallery) Shanghai, China
2011 "Everyday Frenzies" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2011 "Spring Floods and Peach Petals" Spring Floods and Peach Petals, curated by Loo Ching Ling Singapore
2011 "Scope Basel Art Fair 2011" Scope Basel Art Fair 2011, curated by Tally Beck Basel
2011 "HK Artfair 2011" Hong Kong Art Fair, curated by Brian Wallace Hong Kong
2011 "SCOPE" SCOPE Art Fair, curated by Tally Beck New York, New York
2011 "Plugged In" Tally Beck Contemporary New York, New York
2010 "Electric Shanghai" Tally Beck Contemporary Bangkok, Thailand
2010 "The Big Bang" White Rabbit Gallery Sydney, Australia
2010 "Raining Stars" The Louis Vuitton Gallery Macau
2010 "Garden of Autumn Vapours" Red Gate Gallery Beijing, China
2010 "Absolute 0:00" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2010 "HK Artfair 2010" Hong Kong Art Fair, curated by Brian Wallace Hong Kong
2010 "Psychic Apparatus" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2010 "The Light Fantastic" Louis Vuitton Cultural Space, curated by Jonathan Thomson Taipei, Taiwan
2010 "Libido Mortido" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2010 "Fakirs" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2009 "Placebo" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2009 "LED City" The Opposite House Hotel, curated by Brian Wallace Beijing, China
2009 "30 Degrees" island6 Arts Center, curated by George Michell Shanghai, China
2009 "Synesthesia" island6 Arts Center, curated by Thomas Charvériat Shanghai, China
2009 "Individual: New Art from Beyond Beijing" Red Gate Gallery Beijing, China
2009 "Pi" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2009 "LEDs animés" Galerie Twenty-One Paris, France
2009 “Fernelmont Contemporary Art” (Festival) Château de Fernelmont Château de Fernelmont, Belgium
2009 "Art Paris" (art fair) Grand Palais , represented by Galerie Loft Paris, France
2009 "The Artist Died Yesterday" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2008 "Automata" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2008 "Urban Lust" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2008 "Quadrare il Cerchio" Allegra Ravizza Art Project Milan, Italy
2008 "Clouds of Crowds" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2008 "Roma Contemporary Art" (art fair) Palazzo dei Congressi, represented by Mana.art Roma, Italy
2008 "PlugIT" Blue Lotus Gallery Fotan, Hong Kong
2008 "Made in China" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2007 “Fernelmont Contemporary Art” (Festival) Château de Fernelmont Château de Fernelmont, Belgium
2007 "Eurasia One" island6 Arts Center Shanghai, China
2007 "Nuit Blanche" (first Asian edition) Shanghai Exhibition Center Shanghai, China
2007 “Remote/Control” Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Wenny Teo and Ella Liao Shanghai, China

Publications [edit]

  • 2011 “island6 Art Collective” by Thomas Charvériat and Peter Bradt; FoldPress Publications – ISBN 978-0-9549960-3-1 2010
  • 2010 “Liu Dao” by Thomas Charvériat and Peter Bradt; FoldPress Publications

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Eurasia One Rolf A. Kluenter, Dr. Christoph Schreier and Andrea Neidhoefer 2007 published by FoldPress & Timezone8 Publications (pages 20-21) ISBN 0-9549960-1-1
  2. ^ Muddie, Ella (September 2010). "Sino-Supernova". RealTime Arts. Retrieved 2010-12-01. 
  3. ^ Campion, Sebastian (February 15, 2005). "What you buy is almost what you get". Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
  4. ^ "Art Dealers & Art Galleries Around the World". 
  5. ^ "Red Gate Gallery profile on island6 and Liu Dao".  Text "Shanghai " ignored (help); Text "Red Gate Gallery " ignored (help)
  6. ^ "The fantastic light at Louis Vuitton". The China Post. 2010-04-07. Retrieved 2010-05-17.  Text "Taipei " ignored (help)
  7. ^ Muzyczka, Nick (October 20, 2010). "The future was in their hands". The Global Times, Culture Section. p. 6. 
  8. ^ R. A. Suri (December 18, 2009). "Liu Dao Collective". Retrieved 2010-05-17.  Text "Shanghai " ignored (help)
  9. ^ The World Bank. "Urban Development and China". Retrieved 2010-05-05. 
  10. ^ The Gallery of China. "Chinese Paintings Crane Meanings". Retrieved 2010-05-05. 
  11. ^ Muzyczka, Nick (May 14, 2010). "Collectively Gazing into the Abyss". The Global Times, Culture Section. p. 6. 
  12. ^ Michelle Ong. "Absolute 0:00 at island6 Arts Center". Retrieved 2010-10-25. 
  13. ^ Saatchi Gallery Online. "Profile on Liu Dao". Retrieved 2010-05-05. 
  14. ^ "Louis Vuitton's Taiwan Artspace: One of Three Taiwan" (in Chinese).  Text "Taipei " ignored (help); Text "Louis Vuitton " ignored (help)
  15. ^ "A visit to a Gallery Established by Latvian Art Curator". 

Bibliography [edit]

  • Ching Ling Loo, “A Quick, Irreverent Note on Art Prices” KIOSK, May 2012
  • Ching Ling Loo, “New Frontiers. New Media Art” KIOSK, March 2012
  • Eva Martin, “Interview with island6” SHANGHAI 24/7, January 2012
  • “HK Artfair 2011”, HARPER’S BAZAAR, July 2011, July 2011, ISSN 1673-0828
  • interview by G. A. Rhodes, ELLE MAN MAGAZINE, September 2011, 这个世界不需要又一个伍迪.艾伦 (p. 325)
  • P. Bollmann (Ed.), Kerber, FOCUS ASIA: INSIGHTS INTO THE WEMHÖNER COLLECTION, 2011 (p. 150-153)
  • J. INGLEDEW, Laurence King, THE A-Z OF VISUAL IDEAS, 2011 (pp. 49, 113, 118-119, 162-163)
  • Jo Baker, “Comfort Zones”, SILKROAD INFLIGHT MAGAZINE, November 2011, (p. 64)
  • Deepika Shetty, “Tang art goes pop”, THE STRAITS TIMES, July 21, 2011 arts section (p. C2)
  • Matthew Neckelmann, 'An island in the ‘hai', that's Shanghai, April 29, 2009 [1]

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