‘New Man’: Liu Ding in conversation with Edward Sanderson (trans. Carol Yinghua Lu)

Liu Ding is an artist living and working in Beijing. Liu’s solo exhibition, titled ‘New Man’, was staged at MOT International gallery in London, United Kingdom from the 10 April to 27 June 2015. The following conversation took place near Liu’s home in Beijing on 12 May 2015. In this conversation Liu describes works included in ‘New Man’, and their significances as a related group of works within the context of the exhibition’s installation. He links aspects of these works to his continuing research (in collaboration with Carol Yinghua Lu) into the introduction and development of Soviet-inflected Socialist Realism in China, the accommodations that artists made with the ideologically driven aesthetic norms related to this, and the aesthetic and ideological legacy of this style for artists in China. At the same time, Liu places the experience and knowledge gained from his research in parallel with his practice as an artist and curator, all of which informs the exhibition ‘New Man’.