Li Lang - 1974

Li Lang
1974

Published by Maison de Z, 2021
Size: 9.6 × 14.7 × 7.5 cm
760 Pages
Hardcover
Languages: English, Chinese
Limited Edition of 500 copies.
ISBN 978-2-9564071-5-7

Everyone has a unique starting point in their own memory. For Li Lang, it all began in 1974. His work "1974" consists of 390 looped slides, accompanied by the artist's voiceover of four stories taken from his memory of 1974, a summary of the year's important events, and voiceover vignettes on his website.

As an artist who works primarily with photographic images, Li Lang has inserted his observations of history and images into the blurry zone between reality and fiction, as well as his reflections on the contradictions and conflicts between them. The slides in "1974" come from vintage photographs he has collected over the years from various sources, including studio portraits, travel photos, snapshots of work scenes and daily life, etc. After classifying them into different categories, Li hand-labeled them with dates based on a fictional timeline. Thus, these vintage photographs are removed from their original context and become his metaphors for memory, which are then integrated into his own narrative.

Li Lang's work reconstructs his imagination from the starting point of his memory through voiceovers and period photographs. The images and texts are no more than traces of the past. They also explore the potential dialogue with reality in the gap between light and shadow. Li never asks the audience to accept his account of history. Instead, he invites us to join him as an explorer of the past.

- Editor's text