Making Of… “Safaitic Reverie”

In the course of preparing the next island6 show, there is fortunately a little time to spare for looking once again behind the scenes of Liu Dao. In this new episode of our series “Making of…” we would like to illustrate the becoming of “Safaitic Reverie”.

Artwork on exhibition

This artwork is a more classical piece in Liu Dao’s collection, not using the facets of multimedia but the simplicity of conventional oil painting – combined with contemporary typography. All began with a simple photography that Fabrice, one of our in-house researchers and artists, has taken in the streets of Shanghai. For a couple of months now we have been puzzling about the city’s features, especially for our grand urbanization-themed exhibitions. But also we do continuously work on issues in contemporary China and its strength to transform at lightening speed. We were therefore intrigued by the numerous messages and numbers left on the constantly vanishing walls of Shanghai, whether if they are crumbling in Hongkou or Xuhui district.

After choosing the perfect framing of the motif, Xu Yi Han 徐义涵 – better known as Andy in the bosom of our family – started to draw the first lines on the canvas using detailed pencil strokes. Once finished encircling, he could now start to limn the tableau with oil paint with his very sharp eye for detail. Because of the opaque feature of oil, it was the best material to use for this kind of expressive painting. The creamy consistency of the slowly drying wet colours helps to connect with each other in order to emphasize the realistic backdrop of the original photo. Especially where it comes to uniform gradients, the oil paint is unbeatable. The results are natural colours (thanks to the yellowish component of oil), which are in strong contrast to the unnatural-looking and flashy features of acrylic. Also, by using a very fine synthetic-hair brush is inevitable for a soft colour application – as is an obsession with detail.

For more than 2 weeks long Andy was at work in our workshop, starting at 6 AM every day and far into the night. We tried tangling him by mixing up his colour palette, but he just would not to bat an eyelid. For years now we have been loving his great attention to minutiae and superb three-dimensionality he adds to Liu Dao’s artworks.

At the right time he finished to present the newest ouvre d´art at our exhibition “Medina50” in the summer of this year. You are wondering about the interrelation between 21 st century concrete walls and Oriental zeitgeist? Then stroll down to Cecilias fabulous writing spill-over to understand Liu Dao’s acquirement of abstraction…

Text & Photos: Melani Murkovic

Safaitic Reverie 阳光之下无新事

“Shanghai’s graffiti portfolio ranges from the über cool offerings that decorate Moganshan Lu to scam artists who emblazon their numbers all over walls offering services for every occasion. The history of graffiti can be traced by following the Ancient Silk Road from China to the heart of the wide desert landscapes of Damascus. To communicate with other travellers along the silk route, intrepid traders would leave pictorial carvings like ancient graffiti to signal water supply, food and dangers like bandits. These graffiti like carvings came to be the basis of the old northern Arabic dialect, Safaitic. Every now and again when I am overwhelmed by the fight for survival in the urban jungle, I’ll catch a glimpse of a piece of graffiti and then follow the silk road in my mind’s eye to the Arabian Peninsula. Where I lose myself in a landscape that promises adventure and my thoughts are seduced by impressive sunsets over vast sand dunes, with desert nights full of stars and a never ending dawn spread before me…”

Text: Cecilia Garcia