The Night Elf

--- About Liu Life's paintings

 

The painting series, which is exhibited in Gallery F48, was recently created by the artist Liu Lifen. The exhibition is called "The Night Elf", which is based on the visual perception of her works of art.

 

During the pandemic 2020-2021, the artist Lifen had more time alone and lived quietly with his daughter in Sweden. Like everyone else, they were temporarily isolated from the crowd and the outside world. But it is a more intimate connection with nature. Mora often takes her daughter with her to walk in the nearby fields and forests, they pick wild vegetables, flowers, make rosette and brew rose honey in the spring. They picked wild berries, and made lingonberries and raspberry jam in the summer. In the autumn, they pick mushrooms in the forest.

 

Lifen paints pictures of the forest and nature, accompanied by dense and light feathers, seeds and fungi. The child is always shown in the pictures, changed as she grows up, but also as a night elf. I believe that this Chinese female artist was not prepared to assume a specific, magnificent narrative, without distracting thoughts, but followed her original heart, which surrounds her daily life. And meanwhile, as well as in the artist's endless imagination, Lifen brought out a kind of ethereal calm. These children and natural objects become a whole in the paintings. The black background means infinite generosity and strength, and these beautiful creatures are under protection.

 

The European folk legends about the magical world correspond to the ancient Chinese mythology. Among them, the legend of the night rivers is an independent epic. The exhibition is called Nattalv in Norwegian, The Night Elv in English and is also referred to as Stjernenes barn. The elves in the long history have experienced three wars, nothing more than a competition with evil forces and the power of Protoss. I use the meaning attached to the name itself. Night elves are a group with a source of strength, wisdom and immortality, and they are also protectors of the natural world to this day. In this sense, the artist registers nocturnal elves that retreat from the evil virus world to nature and the countryside and continue to grow.