Li Wei (born in 1970, Hubei, China) is a contemporary artist from Beijing, China. His work often depicts him in gravity-defying situations. His work is a mixture of performance art and photography that creates illusions of a sometimes dangerous reality. Li Wei states that these images are not computer montages and works with the help of props such as mirror, metal wires, scaffolding and acrobatics.

'My artistic language is universal and deals with themes about contemporary politics and society using symbols understood by everyone in every part of the world.'I am fascinated by the unstable and dangerous sides of art and I hope my works reflect these aspects.'

Wei's photos, which sell up to $8,000 (£4,200), have depicted him free falling from tall buildings-pictures that resemble the famous photograph of the French artist Yves Kline hurtling out a window.
The artist loves the reaction that his work evokes from people who pass it on the street. [via wiki and other sources]

"My goal is to make everything impossible possible, I hope one day I can shoot on the moon with a rocket." ~ Li Wei

Li Wei dressed as a Monk is lowered into position via a crane and some heavy duty cables.

(Fontaine of Lyons at La Villette in Paris)

*Click on images for a larger view*

Behind the scenes Photoshoot for WALLPAPER Magazine. For video hover over image with cursor)

Interesting behind the scenes video of Wei at work. Sorry about the horrible video quality. It must have been shot with a cell phone from 1993

See an interview with Li Wei here

Erwin Blumenfeld (1897 – 1969) was a famous American photographer of German origin.In the 1930s, he published collages mocking Adolf Hitler. In 1936, he emigrated to Paris. With the German occupation, he was interned in a concentration camp in 1940 because he was Jewish. In 1941, he could escape to the USA.In the 1940s and 1950s he became famous for his fashion photography, working for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, and also for artistic nude photography. In the 1960s, he worked on his autobiography which found no publisher because it was considered to be too ironic towards society, and was published only after his death.

Early in his career he was involved with the Berlin Dadaist group that was important as the First World War ground to an end. He worked in photography in Amsterdam and by the 1930‘s was gaining a reputation for his experimental nude studies. The work he is most highly praised for are his surreal images that were highly influenced by Dadaism and the Surrealist movement.

"Day and night I try, in my studio with its six two-thousand watt suns, balancing between the extremes of the impossible, to shake loose the real from the unreal, to give visions body, to penetrate into unknown transparencies."~ Blumenfeld