Liu Shiyuan

CRISPR Whisper

Almost Like Rebar No. 4, 2018 ©Liu Shiyuan, courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. New York / Los Angeles
Almost Like Rebar No. 4, 2018 ©Liu Shiyuan, courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. New York / Los Angeles

If everything can be edited, how would you perceive the world? Spanning photography, video, text, spatial installations, and stage plays, Liu Shiyuan's artistic practice reveals a profound exploration and interrogation of the intricate interplay between images and narratives. The exhibition features photography series and video works, encapsulating the artist’s creative journey over the past decade.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Liu Shiyuan’s latest solo exhibition CRISPR Whisper is on show from July 5 to October 7, 2024. The exhibition brings the five series artworks from the artist’s earlier creation to the latest works, including an early work A Conversation with Photography, the photographic and digital series A Shaking We, the series Almost Like Rebar, her latest series of photographs Cold-Blooded Animals, and the latest creations also include the film For the Photos I Didn't Take, For the Stories I Didn't Read. Within the multi-layered chaotic arena she constructs, we are invited not only to re-examine how images shape perceptions and implicit biases but also to delve into the multifaceted meanings and latent attributes of these images in contemporary society. The collage-like artwork from Liu Shiyuan is ultra-flat, allowing no singular truth to hide behind their surface, and densely packed with conflicting visual information, inviting viewers to engage in multifaceted interpretive practices. And within her complex visual information, viewers are invited to explore the delicate interplays between 'frames' in the construction of narrative meaning.

New possibilities of visual language

A Shaking We No.1, 2018 ©Liu Shiyuan, courtesy of the artist and White Space
A Shaking We No.1, 2018 ©Liu Shiyuan, courtesy of the artist and White Space

Liu Shiyuan's works deconstruct and reassemble images down to pixels and video stills, the fundamental units of contemporary visual communication. This meticulous approach parallels CRISPR gene-editing technology, which modifies the smallest units of life by trimming, cutting, replacing, or adding genes. Similar to CRISPR, Liu’s process of searching, cutting, and re-editing images generates new forms of visual expression and innovative ways of seeing. Her method of inserting sequences and reorganizing them continually expands the possibilities of visual language while navigating ethical boundaries.

From image reinterpretation to visual lexicons

A Conversation With Photography, 2012 ©Liu Shiyuan, courtesy of the artist and White Space
A Conversation With Photography, 2012 ©Liu Shiyuan, courtesy of the artist and White Space

These works, challenging to define as either static or dynamic photography, are orchestrated and directed by Liu under the concept of "new photography." In her early work, A Conversation with Photography, she critiques classical photographic presentation by mocking stereotypical notions of beauty on the internet through collected image materials. The series A Shaking We and Almost Like Rebar exhibit the progression of her image processing and narrative construction. Whether depicting personal memories or appropriating commercial photography, the reconstruction of images and the recombination of disparate elements challenge traditional narrative expectations, producing effects that are both familiar and unsettling, emphasizing the role of images in shaping public consciousness.

In her latest series of photographs, Cold-Blooded Animals, Liu Shiyuan extends and deepens her recent creative use of online picture galleries and grids as foundational forms. By further reducing the scale of each frame, the works appear as an image malfunction that has gone out of control from a distance. On a microscopic level, horizontal and vertical reference lines traverse the images, , reference lines cut into and reorganize the original frames, pushing the images to the edge between order and disorder.

Cold-Blooded Animals No.2, 2022, © Liu Shiyuan
Cold-Blooded Animals No.2, 2022, © Liu Shiyuan

The latest creations also include the video For the Photos I Didn't Take, For the Stories I Didn't Read. Drawing from HansChristian Andersen’s fairy tale "The Little Match Girl," Liu reimagines each word of the story through contemporary image searches, weaving a new narrative that resonates with current realities, evoking the harsh conditions faced by children worldwide.

Liu’s work consciously interrogates: In a world recorded and engulfed in images, how do images shape stereotypes, carry implicit propaganda, and influence standards of perception established by pop culture? Through re-editing and reinterpretation, images are revitalized with original meaning and emotional potential, constructing new life forms and visual lexicons through their interactions.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Liu Shiyuan Portrait, photographer Shen Chen, courtesy of the artist and White Space
Liu Shiyuan Portrait, photographer Shen Chen, courtesy of the artist and White Space

Liu Shiyuan (b. 1985, Beijing, China) received her BFA from the Digital Media Art Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China. In 2012 she graduated with a Master’s degree from the Photography Department of the School of Visual Arts, New York, USA. Recent solo exhibitions include Suspended Frames, WHITE SPACE (Caochangdi), Beijing, China (2022); For Jord, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2020); Opaque Pollination, Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Fort Lauderdale, USA (2020); In Other Words, Please Be True, WHITE SPACE (Caochangdi), Beijing, China (2019); Isolated Above, Connected Down, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, USA (2018); As Simple As Clay, Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China (2015). Recent group exhibitions include Mirror Image: A Transformation of Chinese Identity, Asia Society Museum, New York, USA (2022); NGV Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2020); The Mesh, Chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2019); Lunar Phases, UCCA, Beijing, China (2019); The Mesh, Chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2019); Encounter, Shanghai Urban Space Art Season (SUSAS) 2019, Shanghai, China (2019); The Intertextuality of Art and Poetry, OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China (2019); Front international – Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art: An American City, Cleveland, USA (2018); Welcome to The Jungle, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany (2018); Cold Night, UCCA, Beijing, China (2017); Yinchuan Biennale-For An Image, Faster Than Light, MOCA Yin Chuan, Yin Chuan, China (2016); Bentu, Chinese artists in a time of turbulence and transformation, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France (2016); The 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, OCT-Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen, China (2012). Her works are collected by the Guggenheim Museum New York, the Carlsberg Foundation (Denmark), the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum (Denmark), and the National Gallery of Victoria. Liu Shiyuan currently lives and works in Beijing, China and Copenhagen, Denmark.