Florence Liu is a visual artist born in Shenzhen, China. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design and is currently an MFA candidate (2021) at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Expressing through her sensibility with materiality, Florence works across different media including artists’ books, prints, and installations that rethink and manipulate the image of flesh and skin. Florence’s work is actively responding and questioning the relationship between the physical body and the psychological mind.
Intertwined No.2, 2021, Handmade abaca paper and hair, 24 x 36 in. (Opened)
Intertwined No.2 explores a physical and bodily experience of reading that has to be revealed through the tactical interaction with the book. Each sheet of paper is a metaphor to skin, and the inlaid gridded hair symbolize the order and systems that are embedded within our bodies. This project is supported by the Caxton Club Grant Award 2020-2021.
Eternal Cycle, 2020, Screenprint on tulle fabric, threads, polymer clay, and resin
Eternal Cycle investigates the possibility of utilizing the time of difficulties as a way of growth and expansion. These bodies are compressed into vessels that look like organs, but the vessels can also be seen as urns. The bodies carry the past, but the action of taking them out of the organs becomes a process similar to giving birth. The process eventually becomes and honors the life cycle of birth and death.
Spirit Money (Heart of Gold), 2021, Lithography on handmade Joss paper, gold leaf, and fire, 18 x 18 in.
Shed Skin No.4, 2020, Lithography on BFK Rives, 22 x 30 in.
Gentle Piercings, 2020, Screenprint on various fabrics, threads, nails, and gold leaf
My work discovers the concept of pain as a key element for psychological transformation and growth. Starting with my personal experiences and relationship with my own body, the choices of the materials, and their natural tendency that leads to abstraction, the work usually transforms itself into questioning and gaining the understanding of human experiences. I believe as humans we are born to suffer. The various types of suffering are the main driving force for my work. Therefore, I see them as extremely positive and unique elements that define who I am.
Influenced by the principle of Yin and Yang, a fundamental concept in Chinese philosophy about the contradictory opposites, my works are based on a series of dualities including order and chaos, pleasure and pain, freedom and restraint, aging and growing, gentleness and torture, bruising and healing, etc. These dualities co-exist with one another. Sometimes they contradict but sometimes they complement each other. I treat these dualities as essential components that form the foundation of our shared feelings as humans.
Working with my hands is fundamental for my artistic practice because I see the process of forming sheets, sculpting clay, pulling prints, sewing fabrics all as an extension and reflection of myself. By working with my hands and repeating the tasks, the process eventually becomes an investigation of my position within the current society. I use repetition and labor-intensive processes as a way to reflect on my upbringing, to convey how our bodies fight with social constraints, and to depict the strength within the vulnerability. I see my work as a channel deeper into the subconsciousness and use the physical materials as a medium for interconnection of my inner and outer self.