Weekend Portfolio: Ziqian Liu
Born in 1990 in China, Ziqian Liu graduated from the University of Technology Sydney in 2015, started photography in 2018, based in Shanghai.
All of her work is a self-portrait. In her work, she combines her body, plants, and mirror images, constantly exploring the balanced state of peaceful coexistence between humans and nature. In terms of visual presentation, she is keen to create quiet images with a sense of rigor and order. Her works intentionally rarely show her face because she wants the viewer to imagine that the body in the picture can be anyone. Different viewers will have different perceptions of her works, which is what she finds most interesting and exciting about photography.
She collaborated with Atelier Cologne, Huawei, etc. She was interviewed by and published articles on the art platforms Featureshoot, PLAYBOY, ELLE China, Visualatelier8, VOGUE Portugal, etc.
There are two main themes in Ziqian's work. The first theme is about the symbiosis between human beings and nature. To some extent, it can be said that human beings and the rest of the natural world are equal - we live in the same world, breathing the same air, mutual tolerance. In her work she tries to find a state of harmony between humans and nature, full of peace and emotion, because, in this state of symbiosis, beauty will be most embodied.
The second theme is about perspective. Things we are familiar with often remain in a fixed image, but what she is trying to convey through her work is to look at the same thing from different angles to disclose different findings. This is not only for things but also for understanding others and our hearts.
On the other hand, her deepest desire is for symmetry and perfect order, both in the appearance of things and in the patterns of human interaction, but this is too idealistic, after all, society is not balanced, some imperfections make it real. In her work, the image in the mirror represents the idealized world she wishes to live in, and the integration with the outside is just a reminder to respect and recognize the imbalance in the real world, but also to adhere to the order and principles of our hearts.
In her work, she wishes to give the audience a small world that is calm but not flat. She wants to show women outside their soft and delicate and inner strength. This is one of her expectations. One reason she chooses self-portrait is because it is the best way for her to communicate with herself and to get to know herself better.
The other reason is that she wishes to slow down time, to integrate herself with the things around her, to discover and observe their changes, which is why flowers and fruits became derivative parts of her body in her works. Nowadays, the pace of people's life is getting faster and faster, and the surrounding environment is always very noisy, so it is easy to ignore the small details around and the true feelings in the heart. In her opinion, fusion is acceptance. To be able to perceive and recognize the subtle changes in things around us is to accept the new self.
To see more of Ziqian’s work, click here
