Migrant Bird Space | Gulu | 1989/2022 | 2022

Born in 1983 in China, Li Xiang graduated from Beijing Film Academy, majoring in Film and Television Advertising.

Took up photography in 2008, he initially started focusing on the contemporary Chinese subcultures, the idea of the body as a weapon, and the reality as the foundation of existence, constantly trying to reject definitions and labels. In recent years, Gulu’s goal has been to restore the identity of those who have been “materialised” by society; to do so, he employs different techniques, such as photography, texts, handwork, and painting. In his latest solo exhibition “Suddenly Retreating Desire” Li Xiang encourage young people from all over the world to show their true self in front of the camera. He furthermore reconstructs by hand the reality depicted in the Polaroids taken, breaking the limitations of the square and blurring the boundary between photography and painting. As an artist whose main theme is the body, Gulu argues it is not an object, but the embodiment of emotion; it has nothing to do with beauty and ugliness, nudity is freedom.