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Liao 2017 Door Stopper Press 300ppi 3000px Srgb Jpeg Liao 2017 Door Stopper Press 300ppi 3000px Srgb Jpeg

Pixy Liao: Relationship Material

Exhibition

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Since 2007, Pixy Liao (廖逸君) has collaborated with her partner, Takahiro Morooka (諸岡高裕, nicknamed Moro), on a series of staged, often humorous self-portraits.

These works wryly examine the power dynamics between artist and muse, prod at conservative gender roles, and document the evolution of their relationship.

Liao 2014 Photographer And Her Muse I Press 300ppi 3000px Srgb Jpeg

Photographer and her muse I, 2014


Pixy Liao

Courtesy of the artist. © Pixy Liao

Pixy (born 1979 in Shanghai, China), an artist working in photography, installation, and performance, met Japanese-born artist and musician Moro in 2006 when both were international students in Memphis, Tennessee. Their creative partnership has grown and evolved over the years to include many projects including their music group, PIMO, which has released six albums to date.

Pixy began the photographic series, known as Experimental Relationship, shortly after she and Moro met, with many of the works playfully referencing art history, film, music, and other artifacts of popular culture. She plans to continue it so long as they remain together.

Liao 2008 How To Build A Relationship With Layered Meanings Press 300ppi 3000px Srgb Jpeg

How to build a relationship with layered meanings, 2008


Pixy Liao

Courtesy of the artist. © Pixy Liao

Presenting approximately 45 works that span the duration of this ongoing series, Pixy Liao: Relationship Material—the artist’s first exhibition in Chicago—celebrates the couple’s many ways of being and working together. As the title suggests, the show frames Pixy’s relationship with Moro as artistic material in itself, showing how this manifests not only in photographs but also in sculptures, videos, and PIMO. Through these works, Pixy chronicles and enacts efforts to “reach a new equilibrium” in a partnership that is both artistic and romantic, examining questions of fantasy, desire, and control.

Pixy Liao: Relationship Material is curated by Yechen Zhao, assistant curator, Photography and Media.

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