Beili Liu's 'The Mending Project': Weaving Connections in a World Frayed by Time and Culture Favorite 

In the broad context of the modern world of art, the work of Beili Liu has always seemed extraordinary in visual terms and deeply profound in thematic development. Born in China and living in the United States, much of her work usually circles themes tightly interwoven with notions of identity, culture, and time. One of her landmark works is "The Mending Project," not as a display of visual arts but as a functionally loaded interactive platform carrying symbolic appropriations to pierce deep into the meanings of connection and repair. "The Mending Project" was presented in 2011 and drew the attention of the entire art world. Beili Liu uses an extensive array of hanging black threads and 1500 pairs of Chinese iron scissors to create a dynamic spatial structure in this project. Viewers were invited to be a part of this, mending not only physically but also in the healing sense of emotion and psychology. The work reflects the artist's personal experiences and universal human experiences: keeping intimate relationships and the passing of cultural continuity.

Beili Liu is threading and sewing beneath a thousand sharp scissor blades. Audience members are invited to cut small white pieces of cloth that were previously strung up in the air just outside the entrance to the gallery and present them to the performer. The fabric, stitched black in places where it has been cut and restitched, creating ridges and valleys, is laid out on the ground under a cloud of scissors. It gets larger, slowly occupying a good part of the floor under the scissors throughout the performance. The sharp scissors create a solid visual against the peaceful, soft act of sewing. The mending project speaks to a coming aggression and uncertainty but is balanced by the silent, simple act of repair. While sitting under scissors and mending torn fabrics, Beili Liu talked about that fragility and the deep, nameless anxiety with which people face danger. Only by being patient and strong enough can a person eventually hear his inner voice and "turn peril into safety." These old classic scissors are a warm presence, seemingly in every Chinese household. The cultural meaning comprises three simple parts—two pressed iron sheets and a copper hinge that connects them. In Chinese tradition, scissors should not point towards people, as it is bad luck. On the other hand, these are tools bound to women, reflecting the home-bound character of sewing attributed to women.

Beili Liu's "The Mending Project" goes beyond its visual impact at first, leading one to believe and into the commentary on deeper human relationship complexities and cultural legacies. Liu's performance is a recreation of torn textiles and a symbolic ending of fragments of personal and collective histories. This mending is a metaphor for resilience and renewal; it asks its beholders to consider the strength at the core of vulnerability and the power of transformation in patient toil. Like the dangling scissors that ominously hang above, all tools and actions are double-edged: they hold the power of destruction and that of healing within them. In this space, Liu holds us accountable for facing our fears, mending our brokenness, and embracing the delicate art of piecing together our scattered selves.