This creation by Liu Dao shows a man walking the precarious length of an invisible wire, yielding a wooden staff to maintain equilibrium. The sequence of the “funambule” carries in a repeated cycle where as the figure of the performance artist disappears from the one visual panel of LED, he begins to emerge from the second which lends for a pattern of the beginnings being equally the end of a determinable action. As the figure physically narrates insecurity and potential failure in the continuum of his movement, his passage across the two distinct planes allows for a brief rupture in the experience of the viewer. He progresses after this temporary absence, and immediately reappears at the point of departure. The punctuation of the figures linear direction is somewhat subdued by the use of paper collage made of newsprint, the translucence of which bears undertones of ephemerality and impermanence. The virtual absence of the support wire itself makes the creation somewhat comic as the actual precipice is not visually evident, the performer appears to be on solid ground yet physically exerts himself with the same dramatic tension that one might experience being suspended a thousand meters above sea level. What is believed as being secure and what is actually threatening is denoted in this work created for the "Fakirs" exhibition by the Liu Dao collective. Man on a Wire correlates fragility, psycho-automatic impulse and the extenuation of courage in this visitation to one of the worlds' classic performances, the tight rope walker, one devoid of illusion. In the realm of the real, is cognitive choice possible? Is the balance of choice and pursuit of decision a potential truth in the experience of the disequilibrium which China faces on all levels of existence? [Rajath Suri]