I Dwell in Possibility by Mia Liu

Mind Set Art Center is pleased to present the first major exhibition of Mia Liu, I Dwell in Possibility, from 20 July to 31 August 2019. This exhibition comprises the latest developments of the artist’s-dialogue series, photography, paper sculpture and a documentary film collaborated with directors Maggie Liao and Po-ying Chu. In the opening talk, the artist will be in conversation with who have deeply taken part in this project, including the conservator Huan-Shen Lin, the photographer Soon-Long Chung and the documentary directors. You are cordially invited to attend the talk and opening reception, which will start with the presence of the artist from 2:30 pm on Saturday, 20 July.

In the beginning of Liu’s artist statement:” In daily life, a randomly appearing old painting, a tuft of grass or a scenery often instantly creates impact on some part of my body where far beyond the consciousness can reach. It drives me to stir the current moment, to get closer to the unmeasurable reality and to react upon, to explore, to question the world of possibility with my own consciousness and power.”

The inclusive works are inspired from meetups in different journeys and the artist recklessly wandering within her multiple states of mind. Those later trigger a series of actions of searching possibilities and further construct this exhibition.

Most of pieces of the Dialogue series with ink paintings on display are done during the period of Liu’s residency in Seoul. According to her, “The encounter with a stack of anonym exercises of ink painting at a flea market in Seoul convinced me. For that reason, I’ve crossed the bridge of time to unfold an overlapping relationship between space and time. I connect, express, and accomplish with the symbols I’ve created. They are subjects I fabricated, piling-up imaginations against the reality, also as if a probe among these subjects for a non-existent me. Perhaps I have been portraying only “myself” all along; therefore, the works can be expressed and developed in a new form when I truly comprehend this kind of real foundation of creating. By means of opening a visual entry, I am able to locate the world that allows my mind to connect with.”

The large-scale installation Dialogue Drawing Dialogue in Seoul: Four Gentlemen in collaboration with the Taipei Conservation Centre was a rearrangement of the paintings of the respective themes of Plum Blossom, Orchid, Bamboo, and Chrysanthemum by the unfamiliar painter “Dao Tian”. She deploys the four which supposed to be mounted separately but onto a 940-cm-long scroll, that the discursively hanging display breaks through the timeline of stroll reading. With the varying shades of pencil that echo the gradated hues of ink and wash, and couture fabrics from Dongdaemun, Liu composed a work in combination of tradition and modernity, dialogue of transcending time and space. Eventually the work hanged from the ceiling as the sculpted space reflects pertinently the concept of “Drawing Installation”.

The other series on view is Drawing Landscape, titled In Between．Fenglin, mirroring the artist’s comprehension towards “possibility”. She mentioned: “My physical state was in the nature while working but I’ve tried to separate my consciousness out of it. I attempt to transcend the current passage of time so to delineate the inner peace as well as noise. The geometric empty space in the photos as a result becomes nihility in nature. They don’t’ either exist in the past or the future, neither the presence; they seem to be the emptiness in between thoughts during meditation and the possibility of isolation, which does not belong to any individual. Only the feeling of silence is left at the end. “

While Liu was invited for a residency in Chishang, she paid her friend a visit and embarked a conversation in regard to land, nature and inner self by chance in the rift-valley. Through imprinting her on-site drawing to the physical landscape, she finally translates her mindscape to images by means of photography, rendering images from armor blocks to slivergrass into prints.

The third series brought along at the exhibit is the latest works from the signature Drawing Sculpture series in her recent practice. The patterns blended in ink color and plant imagery echo the thematic correlation between series of Dialogue and Drawing Landscape. The works in concise forms present the reading playfulness abundant in multiple visuality between two- and three-dimensionality.

Above series of works interwoven in the venue shape another level of co-planning and dialogue in between. The documentary further reveals how the artist sees the invisible variety of possibilities in the visible reality. As Liu’s conclusion in the statement: “The world is made up of all kinds of possibilities. Nevertheless, it is unlikely to see all kinds of possibilities. What “seeing” is actually the product generated by the interaction between consciousness and nature. I, on that account, constantly dwell in possibility”