Now screening: Jia Zhangke's 'Dong' featuring Liu Xiaodong

25 June 2020

Featured as part of Lisson Gallery's Spotlight Screening's programme from 29 June – 5 July is celebrated filmmaker Jia Zhangke’s Dong (2006), which follows artist Liu Xiaodong on painting project visits to the Three Gorges region of southern China and to Bangkok, Thailand. The film charts the production of some of Liu’s most widely recognised paintings – the monumental, five-part canvases Hotbed no. 1 and Hotbed no.2. – created on location over extended periods of time in the areas depicted. First presenting a group of construction site labourers in China, and then of bar workers in Bangkok, both Dong and Liu’s resulting paintings sensitively capture their subjects in candid depictions of their working environments and the aggressive industrial and social developments that will quickly come to alter them. Dong also highlights the influence of film and filmmaking on Liu's painting practice which, in its durational, quiet and unobtrusive documentation, allows for an honest portrayal of subjects and their surroundings.

This screening will run concurrently with Liu's online exhibition ‘Spring in New York’ featuring new works created during the artist's time in New York City under lockdown throughout the coronavirus pandemic and then the Black Lives Matter protests.

Click here to watch.