Artist field note

Li Songsong

Painting history one fragment at a time.

Appears inChina
Big River by Li Songsong
Art Institute of Chicago · Public domainSource ↗

01 / 05

Big River

2001

A familiar political image is rebuilt in separate painted panels. The seams stop history from pretending to be seamless.

The five in one idea

Li slows photographs down until their authority breaks into parts; memory is never one continuous image.