As most of my friends know, I am not a big fan of automobiles. This is one of the many reasons I love New York City, because I could try to avoid being in one as much as possible, usually walking, biking to where ever I need to go. But never have I thought about how automobiles would feel if they had human emotions. As tough and pompous as they look on the surface, could they also be vulnerable and frail? How would they feel about my obdurate prejudice against them? This is a few of the many questions Beijing Songzhuang artist, Li Hui’s massive automobile installations propelled me to ask. Transition, which features a car wreck salvaged by the artist and illuminated with over 13000 laser lights mounted on the museum’s ceiling is both haunting and beautiful. 

Transition

Another installation features three major pieces consisting of ‘amber’, ‘cage’ and ‘reincarnation’ from which the “skeleton” of the car is shown with laser and LED technologies. 

Who is afraid of red, amber and green?

The ability of Li Hui to raise questions of humanity by utilizing machineries and digital technology is quite impressive. Here’s a great interview with him on The Creators Project.