Pixy Liao, Your Gaze Belongs to Me

About

Pixy Liao is part of a new generation of photographic artists. Her work experiments with the possibilities of portraiture in depicting modern, romantic, heterosexual partnerships. She draws inspiration from personal experiences and her own intimate spaces, challenging conventional socio-cultural ideas of gender constructions and questions of nationality in a globalized world.

Curator Holly Roussell says -

Pixy Liao’s work does not leave us neutral; it draws up feelings: confusion, amusement, disgust, joy, surprise, relief, recognition, a sense of belonging. The photographs help people to step back and reflect on the things we often take for granted – such as the socio-cultural nature of gender constructions. These are conversations we should be having, and for me her work is both a personal exploration and an important reflection of our society.

The ongoing long-term project Experimental Relationship is the central focus of this exhibition. It began when Liao, a Shanghai native, met a Japanese musician in 2006 while studying at university in Tennessee. The photographic series - which originated from a photograph taken for a course assignment - has developed over fifteen years to include more than 100 staged photographs depicting an exaggerated version of the artist’s romantic partnership with Moro, her muse. In her photographs, shot with cinematic warmth and a somewhat laid-back, “vintage aesthetic,” Liao often portrays herself in a dominant role, while her boyfriend assumes positions of submission. These subtle stagings intelligently reverse “expected” gender roles.

Five years her junior, Liao credits Moro as the inspiration for this ongoing series, explaining -

Moro made me realize that heterosexual relationships do not need to be standardized. The purpose of this experiment is to break the inherent relationship model and reach a new equilibrium.

This first museum solo exhibition of Pixy Liao's work is arranged thematically, and includes more than 50 works from two series, Experimental Relationship, and the outgrowth series For Your Eyes Only, as well as individual video and sculptural works that Liao is showing together for the first time.

Your Gaze Belongs to Me is curated for Fotografiska by Holly Roussell, and opens on the fourth floor.