Li Songsong

Chinese painter Li Songsong defuses the political undertones of magazine and film clips and found photographs of historical events—images sourced from the public realm—by drawing attention to the medium he uses to rework them. Dividing the original image into diptychs or multiple interlocking panels, Li creates a subtle dissonance in shade and texture among the sections. His use of impasto and high-relief paint on aluminum further detracts from the notion that there is objective truth to be found in a photograph. The complex montage in Li’s 2006 painting Cuban Sugar is prime example of the artist’s rejection of political absolutes. Based on a photograph of the United Nations conference on China's domestic production of sugar, which forced the country into a trade agreement with Cuba, invites the viewer to see different parts of a single historical moment.