A Warm Conversation with Pixy Liao
Photo Credit: Nathalie Guio
Pixy Liao is a Chinese artist living in New York City. She is known for her series Experimental Relationship wherein the series, she explores her life with her younger Japanese boyfriend, Moro. Through her photographic lens, Plxy challenges gender norms in regards to media and sexual expression. Plxy uses her photography to give a new perspective on gender norms, sexuality, and how the media addresses those topics. Liao is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Santo Foundation Individual Artist Awards, En Foco's New Works Fellowship, Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival Madame Figaro Women Photographers Award, and LensCulture Exposure Awards. She has been an artist in residence for Pioneer Works, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Light Work, and the University of Arts London, School of Visual Arts RISO Lab. Pixy has exhibited her art throughout the US and the World in art spaces, museums, and galleries such as the Museum of Modern Art in Bologna, chi K11 Art Museum, Open Eye Gallery, Blindspot Gallery, Arario Gallery, and elsewhere. Her art is also held in collections around the world in spaces such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, He Xiangning Art Museum, Fort Wayne Museum of Arts, the Kinsey Institute, the Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY and many more. I had the pleasure of asking Plxy about working in an artist collective, what are some of her favorite artists and musicians, and what are some similarities between making music and creating art.
UZOMAH: In your book, "Pimo Dictionary: Your Vocabulary in a Superb Relationship," you explore the use of language in our daily lives. How are words similar to how an artist uses colors to express themselves and communicate with others?
“Pimo Dictionary, page 8, 2018”
PIXY: "Pimo Dictionary: Your Vocabulary in a Superb Relationship" is a collection of words we use often in our daily life. As many couples do, we have a set of words that would have a special meaning only known to the two of us. It's like a codebook of a secret language that is intimate and unique to us. An artist is usually sensitive to colors. Each different color might give an artist different strong feelings. These words are special to us, very much how an artist would feel about certain colors or a musician would feel about certain chords.
U: How do you define yourself as an artist?
P: I'm a person who uses art to explore myself and also the world I live in.
U: How is the camera lens an extension of how you view the world?
P: I see the camera lens as a tool to create what I would like to see in the world. It's more like a brush to a painter than a camera to a photographer.
“It’s never been easy to carry you, 2013”
“Pimo Dictionary, 2010”
U: Can you describe the sound of the PIMO band you are in with Takahiro Morooka?
P: PIMO band is mainly led by Moro. I'm just a supporting role for singing and lyrics. Our music is influenced by toy music, the 80s new wave, traditional Japanese music, and Bosanova, etc. It changes as Moro's interest in music changes.
U: Do you draw from other mediums of art to generate ideas?
P: Yes, I draw inspiration from all types of mediums of art, and not just art, in everything I encounter in life, for example, a TV commercial, or internet joke, or foreign news. As long as it is something that grabs my attention and makes me think.
“The woman who clicks the shutter, 2018”
U: How many shots do you take in a shoot to where you say enough? Have I found the image I want to use?
P: I would hope for one, but usually, I will take 3 - 5 shots to make sure I get a good one. It's no use doing it over and over again. It's only good when I'm ready, and everything is right.
U: What are some similarities between making music and creating art?
P: There are a lot of similarities when I see Moro making music and when I make art. When he is preparing for an album, it's very conceptual. All the songs in the same album are trying to create a small world and have connections to each other. It's very similar to when I create a photo series. All the photos are devoted to the same concept. I think making music and making art is all for creating a new world.
“Hug by the Pond, 2010”
U: Who are some of your favorite musicians, artists, and writers who have had the most significant influence on your creative process?
P: I would say Bjork is the biggest influence on me. Besides her, I also adore artists Sophie Calle, Elina Brotherus.
“Trying to live like conjoined twins, 2009”
