Space & Freedom

When Chinese artist Li Yuan-chia left the London art scene for rural Cumbria in 1967, he said he was going in search of ‘Space and Freedom’. He had come to Europe via Bologna in Italy, after being orphaned in Taiwan, following the Chinese Civil War. He had a successful career as an artist in Europe and showed with the Lisson Gallery. But he gave all that up to create, in the tiny rural village of Banks, a lively art centre – the LYC Museum - on Hadrian's Wall. He gave exhibitions to over 350 artists from both home and abroad, some of whom became famous. But for the last few years of his life, after closing the Museum, he was beset with financial and legal problems. His work became increasingly solitary in response to the rural landscape and his personal situation, and he died alone at the age of 56. Finding personal identification with his work and his life, artist filmmaker Helen Petts set out to explore the derelict site where he had built the Museum and the surrounding landscape that inspired his work. Creating an entirely new film from Li's archive footage edited with her own, plus a soundtrack from previously undiscovered archive sound recordings, field recordings of local wildlife and a specially commissioned score by Steve Beresford improvising to the images on prepared piano. Commissioned as an installation by Manchester Art Gallery in 2019, this is a new cinema version. Financially assisted by the Arts Council of England National Lottery Fund and the Li Yuan-chia Foundation.
The original film was a gallery installation. This is the new cinema version.