The art of Li Wei

Heads buried in windscreens, bodies falling off skyscrapers and bodies at impossible angles: enter the bizarre world of Beijing performance artist Li Wei. Take note: the photographs are not created using software, but props and sheer physical exertion

  • Li Wei Falls to the Car (Beijing, 2003). Li Wei was born in 1970. The son of a farmer, he studied at a private arts school until he tired of the school's traditional approach
    Chinese artist Li Wei

  • 29 Levels of Freedom (Beijing, 2003). Li worked in oil until 1999 when he realised that "only performance art offers a chance to experience an action’s message through one’s own body"
    Chinese artist Li Wei

  • Freedegree over 25th Storey (Beijing, 2004). His first significant appearance in the art world was at the 2000 Shanghai Biennale. He entered the opening ceremony without permission to perform an installation in the lobby
    Chinese artist Li Wei

  • Li Wei Falls to New York (New York, 2006). In the 90s, Li Wei worked in a number of jobs to afford to live in Beijing and keep painting. He delivered food and worked as a housekeeper, an experience he says was key to his artistic vision
    Chinese artist Li Wei

  • On the Surface of the Earth (Beijing, 2004). Li has been performing around the world since 2000, appearing in New York, Venice and many other centres of art
    Chinese artist Li Wei

  • Li Wei Falls to the Como Lake (Italy, 2004). About the Fall photographs, Li Wei says, 'this feeling of having fallen headfirst into something and of having nothing firm under the feet is familiar to everyone. One doesn’t have to fall from another planet to feel it'
    Chinese artist Li Wei

  • Love at the High Place (Beijing, 2004). Li has said that much of his work involves the symbolic balancing act between personal freedom and emotional security, such as that of the family
    Chinese artist Li Wei

  • A Pause for Humanity (Beijing, 2005). In 1999, Li Wei performed a piece called It Would Not Die Away Such for invited journalists and artists. He covered himself in earth and lay in a bed, with only his erect penis visible
    Chinese artist Li Wei

  • Bright Apex (Beijing, 2007). He says that much of his work is about change: 'there is a feeling of losing a grip on things, an uncertainty about the morrow. It’s a feeling of hanging in the air, of having nothing firm under the feet'
    Chinese artist Li Wei
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