For Artist Li Wei, Nothing Is Impossible

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Artist Li Wei falls like a meteorite to Hong Kong, 2006

Li Wei

Artist Li Wei falls like a meteorite to Hong Kong, 2006

Li Wei

Li Wei can perform the impossible. Actually, I stand corrected: "I want to tell people that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE," the Chinese performance artist wrote in an e-mail. "I break through gravity in my pictures, I act like a meteorite."

Inspired by other contemporary performance artists, he wrote — as well as classic Chinese variety art, I can only assume — the artist combines physical feats with photography. In some photos, he's precariously suspended from a skyscraper; in others, he's balancing delicately on his head atop a pillar — or doing a nonchalant handstand on a street light above a highway.

Part of the intrigue is not knowing how his photos are made, so I won't divulge that information. But at the core of Li Wei's work is a belief in the fragility of human life, and in the power to overcome. In his words: "My photos describe the current situation of the human beings: Everything is unstable, is dangerous." Life may be uncertain, but at least in Li Wei's universe, it's also supernatural.

You can see more of his work on his website.