From Lishui--Li Shun / Ocean Surface-A General History of China
Li Shun’s new work shows his exceptional intellect, physical stamina, and painting skills. It must be noted that viewing the original work is a completely different concept from appreciating the images, especially when faced with such huge works.
Choosing the sea as the superficial theme of creation is because Li Shun feels that the sea is unpredictable and mysterious, much like how you can hardly see the real sea, just as you can almost never see a real history. Therefore, this exhibition is actually about history, an exhibition about the existence and nothingness of history.
Li Shun believes that there are many ways for people to understand history. Generally, people mainly do so through myths, poetry, novels (movies), as history has deviations in the mouth of every narrator. Therefore, why not choose some recognized wise works? Thus, he chose Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Leaves of Grass, Gone with the Wind, and 1984.
Another main way to understand history is to read the so-called official history. In this regard, Li Shun chose A General History of China: "I collected various images of the sea from the Internet, coming from different times, regions, and even created by 3D software virtual modeling. I selected 864 partial views of the sea, trying to piece them together into a complete seascape, and sketched it on the pages of the latest version of the Chinese history textbook (a national planning textbook for ordinary higher education in China during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, from Chapter One: The Vast Ancient Times to the final chapter Hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, establish and implement the scientific outlook on development, and strive to comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society). This nearly 30-square-meter giant creation is undoubtedly the most dazzling highlight of this exhibition.
