Li Shan’s paintings of Reading series seem to be sketches of a biologist before he carries out an experiment. Looking like unfinished works of art, they record the traces of the artist’s thinking and are garnished with conflicting elements and contradicting vocabulary. In fact, they can be regarded as an embodiment of Li’s bio-art concept in panel paintings, “all life is equal and the same.” The paintings integrate human, dragonfly, sperm and other symbols of life, presenting a progressive state of information exchange in genetics.
  
While reading, skipping, misreading and mispronunciation are inevitable. However, for Li, these are indeed the most appealing and meaningful. When they are connected to the behaviour of reading, a new definition of life and creation of alternative art can be spawned.

Detail pictures: