Liu Shiyuan: CRISPR Whisper: Fotografiska, Shanghai
Liu Shiyuan’s latest solo exhibition CRISPR Whisper is on view from July 5 to October 7, 2024. The exhibition brings together five series of works, including an early work A Conversation with Photography; the photographic, digital series A Shaking We; the series Almost Like Rebar; her latest photographic series Cold-Blooded Animals; and a new film, For the Photos I Didn't Take, For the Stories I Didn't Read. Within the multi-layered arena she constructs, viewers 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. Liu Shiyuan’s collage-like artworks are ultra-flat, allowing no singular truth to hide behind their surface, but are densely packed with conflicting visual information, inviting viewers to engage in multifaceted interpretive practices. Within this complex visual information, viewers are invited to explore the delicate interplays between 'frames' in the construction of narrative meaning.
NEW POSSIBILITIES OF VISUAL LANGUAGE
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
These works - which are neither static nor 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 challenges 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, but also reorganize, and cut into, the original frames, pushing the images to the edge between order and disorder.
The latest creations also include the video For the Photos I Didn't Take, For the Stories I Didn't Read. Drawing from Hans Christian 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, asking, 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.
Images: Installation view of Liu Shiyuan: CRISPR Whisper, 2024 © Fotografiska Shanghai.
