Liu Chuang is skilled at unearthing contents hidden beneath the surface of life’s quotidian systems, which reveals the artist’s sense of crisis about the silent lose of right to live. In doing so, he unmasks these systems as an apparatus that controls the perception of time, ensures the production of history, and protects the perpetuation of the species. And the moment they are questioned or doubted, their institutionalized essence is exposed.

A system can endow “deprivation” with the illusion of legitimacy. When the process of “deprivation” occurs by way of “conversion,” even those privy to it may overlook its existence. The single-channel video work Untitled (Dancing Partner) (2010) expands the scope of the discussion; in the recording, two cars of the same make and model drive side-by-side through the city at the minimum speed limit (60 km); they strictly follow the regulations set by Liu Chuang, seemingly interfering with the order on the roads, but not to the point of causing congestion, let alone gridlock. While the audience watches from a vantage point far above, making moral judgments about the plot of the video, Liu reveals that the very substance of this “morality” is the power of the majority over the minority, and that the law is a product of the institutionalization of power. Everyday life demands that people have the patience to adapt to the rules; and once a certain rule has been acknowledged and accepted on a great enough scale, it can, conversely, become a tool for the restriction of individual freedoms. The implication is, “Anything that does not conform to the rules is automatically against them, and is thus malicious, illegal, and in need of regulation.” This ultimately leads to an enormous inherent moral pressure, one that squeezes out any of life’s potential poetry.

By examining and replaying the micro-systems of everyday life, Liu Chuang triggers our sensitivity to them, and makes us reconsider the social system embedded in our surroundings and find the clue of it.

(Zhang Xiyuan, LEAP No.7, 2011[Extract])