Young Chinese artists' Hong Kong show explores friendship

known for using dog chews, discarded books and found materials for his sculptural and installation works, but the Beijing-based artist says he is no stranger to curating. "When I create, I think about the theme and my approach. It's no different from curating an art exhibition. I always see myself as an artist and a curator at the same time," says the 43-year-old.

However, Liu hasn't actually curated for a commercial art gallery until now. "Nocturnal Friendships", for Lehmann Maupin Hong Kong, is his first attempt, which he undertakes with his assistant Li Bowen. Featuring seven young Chinese artists, the group show challenges the traditional notion of friendship and examines the relationships between the artworks.

Explaining his curatorial vision, Liu says the participating artists were chosen because their works go well with the theme and also with each other. "The artists are not selected because of their backgrounds or who they are," he says. "The exhibition is less about each individual artist than the group as a whole. More importantly, it's about the possibilities that these works present to the viewer."

Liu Wei believes the power of contemporary art lies in the various possibilities for interpretation. "The more ways an artwork can be interpreted, the more questions it asks, and the more powerful it becomes," he says.

Li, a recent graduate of art history at Goldsmiths College, the University of London, says the show tries to expand our understanding of what friendship means in relation to desire, the erotic and death: "Instead of looking at relationships between human beings, it is interesting to explore the existence of friendly relationships in these artworks."