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New image of migrant workers

      Art requires creation, structure, expression and materials. The long history of art is replete with different styles, various fields, and thousands of patterns. But to make something really creative, something that belongs to you and you alone, is more difficult than many may think.

      Li Ping comes from Northeast China. At 180-centimetres tall, he once was a contractor of migrant workers, people from the countryside who work in cities for higher incomes. Because he is familiar with their lives, he has worked them into his art since 2004. Unlike other artists who portray migrants as weak and dispirited people, Li treats them from a normal angle, with warmth and respect.

      Li’s recent works, such as “Dreamland,” “Early Spring,” “Bird’s Nest and Migrant Workers,” and “Getting Meals,” all explore different characters featuring what we may think of as “typical” migrant workers. A breath of the countryside greets you; these are just like the workers we pass by on the street as they trod from or to their jobs and cots. Looking more closely at the pictures, you find every face is familiar; everyone is standing right next to you. The colours and styles will give you a strong visual shock.

      Li has been focusing on their lives for a long time. He appears at construction sites frequently, and he calls them “brothers.” He gets drunk and plays poker with them. In this way, he collects the information he needs, which has helped him get to know even more about the kinds of workers he once managed. With an artist's insight, his feelings and respect for them have grown. “The migrant workers are just as noble and have their own feelings, just as others, though they may be sun-darkened, and have tough skins,” Li said.

      So Li’s “tough” pieces are unlike the smooth and clean works often found in the art market. To make some of his creations, he even collected socks, gloves and shoes used by the workers and incorporated them in his paintings. His brave experiments have met with unexpected success. The Migrant Workers Series gives us a well-earned visual shock.

      Li has received a good education in painting. His ways of expression have attracted public attention. His experiments with oil, propylene, and other materials have resulted in works with a strong and heavy feeling. In using realism to portray migrant workers’ daily lives, he has achieved an artistic style of his own.

      As intellectuals and artists, people should bear the responsibilities that come entrained and care for the society they live in. Migrant workers and their lives in Beijing are but one more aspect of life in this great city. One day, this reality will fade from view, but we will have Li’s works to prompt our memories.