Partager l'article

Games of gender and gaze at Pixy Liao

In Pixy Liao’s work, the attitudes and interactions resemble the traces of an erotic role-playing game with a wry sense of humor. Partly because the staging, the bold colors, and the apparent cord of the photographic trigger evoke a dialogue between professional and amateur images. Partly because the roles in question contradict the representations we are used to. 

In her serial work “Experimental Relationship,” which she has been working on since 2007, the Chinese-born photographer collaborates with her partner Moro to divert representations of the heterosexual couple and the traditional duo of artist and muse. These double self-portraits cross everyday inspiration with artistic, mythological, and cinematographic references, following the couple in their flat as much as in their travels, but always through fictional stagings, a narrative creation that grows with the couple, without entering their real intimacy. Facing us, Pixy Liao’s gaze stares at us through the lens, sometimes gently, sometimes defiantly, aware of the questions posed by her dominant position, but often leaving it to her companion to trigger the photograph. Between a parity shooting device and an inverted dominant role, the image exposes the modern configurations of a relationship where each partner does not really stay in their place.

Pixy Liao

Your gaze belongs to me

Fotografiska, Tallinn

Until 14 August 2022

https://www.fotografiska.com/tallinn/en/naitused/pixy-liao-eng/

Ana Bordenave