LIYU+LIUBO: NO TITLE

2011, video, 6 min.

Chutian Golden Paper 20100520
Fashionable Girl Stands Barefoot in Street for 13 Hours

From 10 a.m. on May 18, our staff received calls nonstop from readers, who reported a fashionably dressed pretty young woman motionlessly standing barefoot at the intersection of Jiefanggongyuan Road and Huiji Road. Her abnormal behavior attracted considerable attention until around 1 a.m. yesterday, when the woman was finally sent to the hospital for treatment with the help of the police and her relatives.

2011, video, 6 min.

Chutian Metropolis Daily 20100426
Silent Male Passenger Suddenly Stabs Taxi Driver with Knife

At around 4 p.m. yesterday afternoon, a man approximately 30 years old hailed the taxi of Mr. Xu Youqing on Gutian Er Road and asked to be taken to Zoumaling. The man kept silent all the way, but upon reaching his destination, he suddenly attacked Xu with a knife, stabbing and wounding him in the stomach. Passersby rescued the driver and called the police, who quickly arrived on the scene and apprehended the assailant.

2011, video, 6 min.

Chutian Metropolis Daily 20100629
Civil Shield-Bearing City Management Surround Illegal Residence

Yesterday, a number of city management inspectors armed with shields suddenly surrounded an illegal shack in Guanshan Road’s Hudian Community. After a five-minute deadlock, the owner, Mr. Li, took the initiative to negotiate with inspectors, ultimately offering to dismantle the shack. Bystanders expressed a variety of opinions on this unique approach to administrative law enforcement.

2011, video, 6 min.

Chutian Metropolis Daily 20100418
Policeman Hides on Top of Building to Record Traffic Violations

Following reader reports, our correspondents hurried to the roof of the Dajiajie wholesale clothing market on Hankou District’s Youyi Nan Road yesterday at noon, discovering a man in police uniform recording traffic offenses below with a small video camera. According to area freight drivers, the policeman had already been hiding there and videotaping for several days running.

2011, video, 6 min.

Chutian Metropolis Daily 20100204
University Students Play Pipa for Elderly Widow

Yesterday, four college students who are undergoing military training with the Jianghan Fire Brigade went to visit the elderly widow Mrs. Chen Shufang and play her the song Moonlight on a Spring River on the pipa. Recalling that she wanted to apply to the Beijing Opera Academy when she was young but her family wouldn’t allow it, the song left her deeply moved.

Liyu+Liubo’s photographic works often “unfaithfully” reproduce stories from mainstream media. Their new video work NO TITLE has retained the visual and thematic essence of their previous work: characters who move so slowly they appear still are captured in six-minute black-and-white takes. However, the artists prefer to call these long takes not video, but photography, as “They recall the early stages of photography, when film speed was rather slow and required long exposure times. Does this mean that the moment never had anything to do with photography in the first place, or that there are moments that actually take a very long time?” Liyu+Liubo have found the logic behind their video work: It is not that the artists intentionally force these “victims” to keep unreasonably still, but rather, that the media’s wording of their stories has set them firmly in place.