Liu Fei (b. 1964 in Nanjing) paints bald young women that comment on the interplay of conformity and self-expression. Their means of dress and lack of hair are very much in line with one another, yet their rebellious gestures and exaggerated facial expressions speak of a desire to turn convention on its head. Red smiling mouths jump out from an otherwise black-and-white monochrome palette, thus seeming to ridicule the country’s traditional female virtues like purity, delicacy and grace.
By depicting his female subjects in the student uniform of the 1920s, often associated with progressivity, he compares notions of rebellions and equal rights in the early 20th Century with those of today. Often consulting fashion magazines for inspiration, he examines how fashion continues to have a hold on Chinese society in the face of a rapidly growing call for individuality.