Li Binyuan: Social Behaviours @ CFCCA, Manchester

Social Behaviours is Li Binyuan’s first solo exhibition in the UK and it certainly makes an impact. The majority of the Beijing-based artist’s work centres on video and performance, with key components being Li Binyuan’s own body and the use of low-tech camera equipment or phones to record his videos. His work hovers on the boundaries between performance, intervention and documentation and this is highlighted by the fact that many of his actions take place in urban spaces, sometimes directly interacting with members of the public.

Long Jump is the first work the visitor encounters and it seems deceptively simple. Over two split screens, the artist attempts to jump between two high traffic bollards but it is only on realising the distance between them (nearly two and a half metres) that it becomes more obvious how daring a challenge this is. As the sequence runs, Li Binyuan clearly becomes more tired, slipping at times from the bollards. The way the video is installed is also interesting: visitors enter the rest of the exhibition through a gap between the two screens, passing between the bollards much like the other traffic in the video.

Signal is a particularly mesmerising work, again split across two screens. In the foreground, a thumb flicks at a cigarette lighter, causing it to splutter into flame, while in the background a city night scene spreads out. It takes a moment before the viewer spots a flash of light from the top of a tall building; then the question begins to form – is the lighter responding to the other light or a precursor to it? The answer never becomes quite clear, giving a delightful ambiguity to the scene.

Resonate, presented on a smaller screen, shows the artist jumping in response to the tremors of a train passing over a viaduct behind, without ever turning to see the cause. In contrast, cause and effect are changed in Exercise 47mins, in which the artist appears to breathe wind into a tree. This plays beautifully with perspective, as the artist appears much larger than the tree, with almost godlike powers.

Two screens, side by side, form the work entitled Link in which Li Binyuan cartwheels across the same bridge in two different seasons: spring and winter. Again, there is a sense of joy in celebrating his body and its movements, but the connection between the action and location does not feel as strong as in other works.

The final artwork does not fully exist yet. A concrete pad, made by the artist, sits in the gallery waiting for Li Binyuan himself to appear on 14 May at 7pm to perform Deathless Love, a recreation of a previous performance where the artist smashes hundreds of hammers, rendering them functionless, as the audience looks on. The physical and durational endurance of this performance raises questions of what artistic production is and can potentially be.