Liu Guoqiang is a precise observer, he is skilled in discovering and even inventing the inner connection of ordinary things. His creations are often carried out through images, but unlike traditional image creator, the content and quality of the images have never been the focus of his work. The images he chooses are common and seem to be readily made. However, he composes the images into a new relationship by means of contrast, stretching, and cutting. In the relationship he designed, these images seem to open up a new way of being recognized.
The works presented in the exhibition "Reference" shows one aspect of Liu Guoqiang's entire works. Through four works of various forms, to explore the thinking about the relationship of "stationary-movement". The judgment of whether an object is moving requires a reference object. The mutual reference relationship between objects connects different subjects in motion. In his work, Liu Guoqiang sets up multiple nested counterparts. In the work "Reference (Installation) #1", the artist chose the cloud as the central figure of the picture. The cloud itself is a slow-moving and relatively static object. The extremely slow clouds in the video require the foreground tree as a reference. The artist has also juxtaposed 10 videos with the same content but not a synchronized timeline. These images have formed a new reference relationship and a sense of movement.
From a certain point of view, Liu Guoqiang is like an experimenter, handling and comparing the samples he has collected with a calm, objective, and emotion-free attitude and dripping his thought into reagents. As Liu said by himself: "What I have always emphasized is about effective expression, not involving any emotions, events, and directions that can prompt oneself to influence the understanding of the work. In other words, the material and the nature of the work are essential to my creative language. This is especially important, and as much as possible to make the work complete and objective. Compared with the so-called artist expression, I care more about the object itself and the logic and participation of people. For me, I am more eager to create an objective work that is not even individual."
Guo Xi
