Liu Wei (b. 1972)
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Liu Wei (b. 1972)

Love it! Bite it!

Details
Liu Wei (b. 1972)
Love it! Bite it!
edible dog chews
dimensions variable
Executed in 2005-2007
Provenance
Wedel Fine Art, London.
Acquired from the above in 2007.
Literature
U. Grosenick & C. Schübbe (eds.), China Art Book, Cologne 2007 (installation view illustrated in colour, pp. 228 and 229).
E. Booth-Clibbon (ed.), The History of The Saatchi Gallery, London 2011 (installation view illustrated in colour, pp. 726 and 727).
X. Guo (ed.), Liu Wei: Trilogy, exh. cat, Shanghai, Minsheng Art Museum, 2011 (installation view illustrated in colour, pp. 24 and 25; detail illustrated in colour, pp. 26 and 27).
Exhibited
Beijing, China Art Archives and Warehouse, Love it, Bite It, 2007. London, Saatchi Gallery, The Revolution Continues: New Art from China, 2008-2009 (installation view illustrated in colour, pp. 14 and 15; detail illustrated in colour, pp. 16-19).
Lille, lille3000, La Route de la Soie, 2010-2011 (detail illustrated in colour, pp. 28 and 29).
Special Notice
VAT rate of 20% is payable on hammer price and buyer's premium

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Lot Essay

orking in a host of media, varying between video, installation, drawing, sculpture and painting, there is no stylistic tendency which ties Liu Wei's work together. Rather, Liu perceives the artist's function as a responsibility of unmitigated, uncensored expression, tied to neither ideology nor form. Throughout Liu's work lies an engagement with peripheral identity in the context of wider culture; his works often describe a sentiment of excess, corruption, and aggression reflective of cultural anxiety. A parody of grotesque consumption emerges with Liu Wei's vast installation Love It! Bite It! - a model plan of a city made entirely from dog chews. Comically editing down the world to only the 'tastiest' bits, Liu's utopian vision re-engineers the breadth of Western history - from the Coliseum to the Guggenheim - as a carnivorous spectacle. Constructed with painstaking detail, ornate columns, cornices, and magnificent domes tower with warped approximation giving the scene a post-apocalyptic aura, rendering cultural heritage and power as an abject skeletal remain.

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