Li Hongbo’s Paper Sculptures That Refuse to Stay Still
Bust of Athena, 2012
Athena’s composed face gives Li Hongbo a particularly persuasive disguise for paper. The recognizable language of the classical bust encourages us to assume weight, hardness and permanence, even though the work belongs to his flexible paper practice. The photograph shows the sculpture in its compact state; the layers do not need to be pulled apart in every image for the illusion to work. Soft shadows across the hair and cheeks make the material contradiction more striking once we know that the apparent solidity is provisional.
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