Wang Lei

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About the artwork

In this masterpiece, the artist Wang Lei introduces a simple custom, which design belongs to the past dynasties, delicately and devotedly knitted with his own hands with the use of an unusual material that introduces an uncommon concept dwelling around the language, and its influence on each era's cultural behaviour. In this case he choses the pages of a Chinese bible, knitting it in the exact traditional way so that the outcome is a custom which used to act as a cover to the interior of each person in order to represent an alternated self into the society. But still the substance, the material and the existence of this custom is being transformed by the mindset and intent of the artist into a more contemporary concept when he decomposed a simple traditional material by using Chinese Bible. The book that questions and discusses the local conditions of the time and starts a transformation from the within to the outside world.

About the artist

Wang Lei was born in 1980 in Henan, China, and is one of the most prominent contemporary artists in China. Wang Lei has an eye for intimate details and subtleties. He brings an art piece to life by absorbing all historical and social factors as a subtle culture within layers of time. We see this not only in the context of his artwork but also in the process of designing and creating. Wang Lei’s artworks succeed in its contemporary agenda to communicate with a vast range of audiences from different backgrounds.
He uses paper and twists it into long, delicate threads which are then woven into reproductions of Chinese robes. The manipulation of this tough-textured paper into the composition of such an exquisite garment highlights the problems surrounding the relationship between viewer perceptions and reality. Wang Lei also draws attention to the often-disputed interconnectedness of traditional and contemporary art, focusing on the reverence for history and tradition as a central obstacle which hinders the acceptance of contemporary art in China.