Li Qing - Contemporary Artists

Wedding
(There Are Six Differences In The Two Paintings)

Li Qing, Wedding (There Are Six Differences In The Two Paintings) The Saatchi Gallery
 

Li Qing

Wedding
(There Are Six Differences In The Two Paintings)

2006
Oil on canvas
190 x 275 cm

each panel

This pair of almost identical paintings by Li Qing is based on an image taken from The Scandal of the Century, a documentary film on the notorious marriage between Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Neither of the two paintings is a strict reproduction of the original image. Instead, the artist has deliberately inserted six slight alterations into these two paintings, the most noticeable ones being the two star-shaped knots vs. two round-shaped knots on the red cloth in the foreground. Wedding is part of a larger series consisting of matching images in pairs, which the artist started in April 2005. The differences that the artist designed for every pair of paintings often rise from the irreproducible nature of experience and memory, the derivatives of conspiracy and disclosure, the delicate division between reality and forgery, and the relationship between painting and source image. As the viewer is coaxed into looking for the distinctions between the two paintings, the artist questions the principle of painting which dictates that every stroke can’t be repeated.

 
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