Li Lang (b. 1969, Chengdu) is an excellent photographer. He began to be known by the art scene in the late 1990s. His famous photography series "The Yi People" has won many prizes for him, including the Motherjones International Fund for Documentary Photography Awards. His works have been exhibited in many important platforms at home and abroad, many important museums and collectors have collected his works.

Under the special theme "30,219 Days", Li Lang presents 11 seemingly ordinary black and white photographs. We can tell an old man's body parts, an old bracelet, a handwriting note, or an old photo of a young man… each of the photographs has been shrouded in a layer of gauze-the handwritten 241,752 numbers represent 30,219 days-From December 3rd,1927 to August 27, 2010, it's the whole life of Li Lang's father. Facing his dying father, Li Lang gave up all his thoughts about image logics, but chose the most plain way to record these images. After that, it costed him three years to complete these extremely personal works. He said: "I swap my time for the presentation of my father's life experience, to satisfy my illusory surmise, so that I could make my father's whole life completed by handwriting."

Li Lang's Words About His Work

My father was laid to rest on the eve of the first Tomb-sweeping Day after he passed away. The black tombstone was engraved with his name and dates of birth and death, as well as a hyphen between the numbers, and the names of his family.

I stare into the most simple hyphen, can't help to wonder-how many days had my father lived in this world for? How many days can a person live in the world for? Can the most simple punctuation mark really condense the whole life? These are so simple but boring questions, but no one can answer them. Many people don't care much about how many days they could live in the world. For people who are alive, as they are alive and going to be alive, they don't have time to think about that. For those who have passed away, as they have left, no one concerns about it for them.

My father had lived in this world for 30,219 days. Yes, I got this boring answer in an awkward way. Because I'm so concerned! Everyday my father spent is not only important to my father, but also equally important to me. Although my father didn't think so.

I don't want my father 's colorless life summed up in the simple engraved birth and death days that connected with a simple punctuation mark, just like other people. I also know in fact even the two meaningful days would disappear from people's memory. I want to erase the punctuation mark from my father's tombstone, to restore every single day of his life. Guided by such an idea, I began my long writing work.

Time and time again, I wrote down the dates which composed of just eight figures on the photograph of my father's body and remains. The days and nights writing is slow, it satisfies my illusory imagination to spend my time on building the presentation of my father's life, so that to complete my father's whole life with my pencil.

Once and once again, such a writing process brought me back to every day of my father's life, and completed my imagination and memory of the world my father lived. During this process, my memory of my father turned from vague to clear, even the last day of his life seemed like yesterday.

If you ask me, my father had a plain life. In society, he is just someone who could be totally ignored, his departure was just as ordinary as any ordinary people's. It was so ordinary that we could easily forget it. But I'm always resisting such oblivion, resisting the increasingly vague memory and emotion with time elapsing.

--By Li Lang

About the exhibition

Duration: 21 Jun - 3 Aug 2014 10:30 - 18:30

Venue: A Thousand Plateaus Art Space

Opening: 21 Jun 2014 Sat 15:00 - 18:00

Tel: 028-85126358, 028-85158238

Add: 3-5 Southern District, Tiexiang Temple Riverfront, 699 Tianfu First Street, High-tech Development Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan

Courtesy of the artist and A Thousand Plateaus Art Space.