These silhouettes carved from traditional Chinese butcher knives are utterly compelling.
Li Hongbo‘s metal sculptures portray everything from a cheetah to a hawk and are lifted from the metal, standing up independently, which gives them a 3D element and shows off their intricacy.
These shadow knives were exhibited in Hong Kong at Contemporary Angela Li. And it’s their haunting, shadow puppet like appearance, and the delicate figures and shapes carved from a harsh, heavy material that adds an extra spattering of beauty to these works.
These sculptures have a serious message at their heart:“human beings will eventually destroy themselves because of their gluttony and their abuse of animals.”
Li has caused a flutter in the past with beautiful, flexible paper sculptures, which you can see here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Li-Hongbo/228862160569539.