IMG 6965-001-Escape (My Family History)

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex.

Escape (My Family History) by Li Jinghu is a socially-engaged work made from quotidian materials, inspired by the artist’s personal experience of growing up in the city of Dongguan, on the border between Mainland China and Hong Kong. The work consists of two chain-link fences – universal symbols of restraint and division –standing opposite one another on a level plain of grass. Each fence is affixed with a roving searchlight whose illuminated trajectories occasionally intersect to form a cross on the ground between them. Over the duration of the exhibition, the grass that has been continually exposed to both searchlights will grow taller and more vibrant than the surrounding vegetation, thus creating an abstract, organic sign. Li’s powerful yet understated work thus evokes the geopolitical anxiety of border controls and illegal immigration. The title alludes to the human desire to seek out a better life beyond national borders; one shared by many of Li’s family members as well as countless people all over the world.