For London Gallery Weekend, Li Hei Di will be joined by three other performers, Qinging Liu, Erin Alles and Juicy Wang, for The Willow Tree, a performative exploration of the passage of water in the natural world and the human body. The choreography of the performance is designed to emulate the organic patterns of nature, in particular to evoke notions of blood coursing through one’s veins, sap travelling through trees and rivers running across land.
The performers will wear custom-made funnels as hats, replete with many thin, transparent tubes that snake down from their heads and wrap around their bodies. Clad in these costumes, the performers move across stacks of rice paper with dry pigments hidden in between the layers. Liquid is funnelled into the hats, either poured by another of the performers or by placing water bags on the top and pricking them open with a long needle. As water travels through the funnel and into the tubes, it squirts in different directions, mixing with the pigments on the paper to create a self-determining composition. The performance arouses the desire to pull the tubes from the performers’ bodies; to splash the juices of their internal organs into the air and see how they land on a blank sheet in a visceral exploration of painting.
Central
2 June 2023, 2.30– 3.45 PM
St James's Church Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL | Nearest Underground: Piccadilly Circus and Green Park
- The Willow Tree by Li Hi Di
- not a centre, but a mesh by Nicole Bachmann
- Heat Generation (prayer) by Minh Lan Tran
South
3 June 2023, 12 – 2.30 PM
Peckham Library Square, London SE15 5JT | Nearest Overground / Rail: Peckham Rye Station
- The Willow Tree by Li Hi Di
- not a centre, but a mesh by Nicole Bachmann
- Heat Generation (prayer) by Minh Lan Tran
- Body Arcana (“Home-building”) by Lesley Asare + in conversation with Nephertiti Schandorf, Director, Peckham Platform
East
4 June 2023, 12 – 2 PM
Hoxton Square, London, N1 6NU | Nearest Underground: Old Street
- The Willow Tree by Li Hi Di
- not a centre, but a mesh by Nicole Bachmann
- Heat Generation (prayer) by Minh Lan Tran
- Artist Panel Discussion with Li Hi Di, Nicole Bachmann and Minh Lan Tran moderated by Bengi Ünsal, Director ICA
15 May 2023