Organic, Ethereal Art Work by Beili Liu

Beili Liu - Miasma (posted with permission by the artist)

Beili Liu takes unwoven wool, silk organza, thread and reworks them into structures that easily look like they could have been found in nature. The end results are sculptural and breath-taking.

One of her pieces, Bound #2, is composed of two standing red-oak columns that look as if they might have been cut in half. Red threads, attached by needles to the wooden columns, connect the two like a gossamer. The red threads create a tension between the two pieces of heavy wood that bring life back into the de-rooted, lumbered pieces. Here is what dberman gallery says about it:

Bound #2… is based on the Chinese legend of the red thread of destiny, which is the idea that when each person is born, they are connected by an invisible red thread to their destined soulmate.

Beili Liu - Lapse

Another piece, called Lapse, recalls to mind a beautiful birch tree, and in fact, birch wooden panels are used as the base on which charred vellum is adhered. It is amazing to me that I can look at these flattened & elongated panels and really feel as if I am walking through a birch forest, particularly the one long piece. It makes me think of the writing trick where you can leave out certain letters and people will still read the sentence correctly, our mind skips ahead and makes the connections. In this case, I feel the same way I would as if I was experiencing a tree in nature–Beili Liu makes that connection for me in her sculptures.

Beili Liu’s Bound is showing at dberman gallery through October 24th, with a gallery talk this Saturday, October 3rd at 1pm.