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Lillian Lijuan Liu   刘丽娟About

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找到我 Find me :lillianliu325@gmail.com 
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Control Cave
控制洞

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In the project “Control Cave” (2024–), several tipping points between control and loss of control are superimposed on each other. Recordings and walls form the basis of this project. The regular sound of medical instruments in the recordings and the grey-green tones of the control room are part of the infrastructure that maintains the “normal” functioning of the system. 

In the installation Banyan Tree, moss-covered panels reveal a more chaotic and vibrant natural system. In the deepest part of the cave, Canary Leaving the Mine is about to be buried, a creature that was once used as a detection device due to its vulnerability, and finally freed. Skin Reaction is a mirror in the shape of the bark of a bellflower tree, commonly known as the French sycamore, where humans and trees meet in a moment of similar skin reactions.

An anaphylactic shock patient awakens in the emergency room, and a recording of this scene loops continuously in this space. 

The nurse asks, “Do you feel any pain?”

The patient replies, “I feel, normal.”

It is a confusing space, just like our experience in contemporary life.

This spatial project, which includes photography, audio, and installation, is still in progress and was first presented in a group exhibition at Third Street Gallery in Shanghai in 2024.





在“控制洞”（2024–）这一项目汇中，若干控制与失控之间的临界点彼此叠合。录音与墙面构成了这一项目的基础。录音中医疗仪器的规律声响、控制室中的灰绿色调，都是维护系统“正常”运作的基础设施的一部分。

在装置《榕树》中，长满青苔的面板展示了一个更为混乱且充满生机的自然系统。在洞穴的最深处，《离开矿井的金丝雀》即将被埋葬，这一曾因自身脆弱性而被用作探测仪器的生物终于获得了解脱。《皮肤反应》是一片悬铃木（俗称法国梧桐）树皮形状的镜子，人类与树木因相似的皮肤反应在此刻会面。

一位过敏休克患者在急诊室苏醒，这一现场的录音在本空间中不断循环。录音中，
护士问道：“你是否感到痛苦？” (Do you feel any pain?) 
病人回答：“我感觉，正常。” (I feel, normal.)

这或许是一个令人困惑的空间，就像我们在当代生活中的经验。

这一空间项目包含摄影、音频、装置等，仍在进行当中，并曾于2024年在上海Third Street Gallery群展中第一次面世。仍是一个进行中的项目。

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Kapok
木棉

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The kapok flower, an everyday presence in the lives of Guangdong’s local residents, became my entry point into the memories of growing up as an outsider in this place. Through the kapok’s migration across multiple geographical contexts, a landscape of identity and emotion begins to unfold.

My thoughts kept wandering uncontrollably until the stiffness of my body reminded me of the limitations that exist. It's not time and space that limits people, it's who they are. And when touching the limit, it seems like feeling the bones under the skin as well as the bottom of the boat hitting the reef. The sea gradually disintegrated and swallowed the hull of the ship of the ego though being so tender a second before its sinking. When the kapok (木棉花) fell over on my head without any signs, and became a canoe. 

Passing through Cantonese to Chongqing and Hunan dialects, the kapok blossoms drift and flow in tender or wrinkled hands, in boiled herbal teas together with honeysuckle (金银花), chrysanthemum (菊花), frangipani (鸡蛋花), sophora flowers (槐花), and in chicken soup and pork bone broth. 

I used to pick them up as a child following my classmates not aware what it could be used for. Years later the kapok water I drank was saturated with fragments of my memories. Soaking and getting mouldy with the body of water I entered the images, familiar but gradually unfamiliar. And after being salvaged, my stomach screamed, "Rice noodle rolls (肠粉)!”.

Cantonese cuisine is my elephant graveyard as my stomach is the real brain, and my head excels at regurgitating and fermenting layers of mould. The building entwined with the intertwined Chinese banyan is green fireworks, slowly blooming. A sprouting potato, a menopausal womb losing their functions in the human world, however, gain freedom in the midst of rejuvenation.

The project originated during my residency at Shekmai Space (Dongguan) in 2022, and was later presented through video, installation, and photography works in my solo exhibition at Window of Shemai in Shenzhen.




木棉花作为广东本地居民生活的部分，是我走进作为一个外乡人在此成长的记忆的入口。身份与情感的风景借由木棉在多重地理语境中迁徙和穿梭。

我的思绪总是不受控制地穿梭，直到僵硬的身体提示我局限的存在。而触摸到局限之时，宛若皮下摸骨，船底触礁。在沉没前一秒还那么温柔的海面，渐渐瓦解吞没自我的船体。木棉花毫无征兆地掉落在我的头顶，并成为一支小舟。它越过粤语、重庆话、湖南话，穿梭在稚嫩或者褶皱的手里，在与金银花、菊花、鸡蛋花、槐花熬煮的凉茶里，在鸡汤、猪骨汤里。

我小时候曾跟随同学捡拾，却未知晓它的用处，时隔多年后喝到的木棉花水浸润了碎片的记忆。我进入熟悉又逐渐陌生的影像里和水体一起浸泡、发霉，在被打捞出来之后，我的胃大叫着：“肠粉！”。

粤菜是我的象冢，肠胃是真正的大脑，而我的头颅擅长反刍发酵出层层霉菌。被盘根错节的细叶榕缠绕的建筑是一场缓慢绽放的绿色烟花，发芽的土豆，绝经的子宫，在生机焕发之际失去在人类世界里的功能并获得自由。

该项目诞生于2022年我于石米空间（东莞）驻地期间，并于我在深圳石米之窗的个展中以录像、装置、摄影等形式呈现。

  

I Sprouted
我发芽了

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“I Sprouted” (2021) is a meditation on the restless life of images and the evolving relationship between self and representation.Drawing from generated personal photo archives, I transform my own images into organic, living entities—fragments that no longer remain flat or fixed, but instead sprout, grow, and invade the spaces between memory and reality. Branches and cellophane-printed portraits intertwine, suggesting that identity is not a static imprint but a constantly mutating organism. Through layered materials and suspended forms, “I Sprouted” captures a state of becoming: where the boundaries between body, image, and environment dissolve into fluid motion. It reflects a chaotic, overwhelming intimacy between the self and its countless, proliferating echoes. During the exhibition, I invited audiences to take fragments of the “self” as nomadic spores.


“我发芽了”（2021）是一个关于图像生命力与自我再现关系的项目。我从手机相册自动生成的个人影像档案出发，将自我图像转化为有机的生命体——那些原本平面化、静止的片段不再受限，而是发芽、生长，在记忆与现实的缝隙中蔓延。艺术微喷于菲林片的肖像与真实的花枝交织缠绕，暗示着身份并非固定的印记，而是一个持续变异、生长的有机体。通过多层次的材料堆叠与悬置装置，“我发芽了”捕捉了一种“生成”的状态：自我、图像与环境之间的边界在流动中不断溶解。这件作品映照了个体与自身无数繁殖回声之间，一种混沌而又亲密的关系。展览期间我邀请观众带走“我”的碎片，模仿孢子的旅行方式。

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Veil of Veronica
维罗尼卡之纱 

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Veil of Veronica (2021) draws inspiration from the Christian legend of Saint Veronica, who captured the face of Christ on a veil—a miraculous “true image" not made by human hands. This work consists of five layered portraits printed on cellophane and illuminated in a lightbox. The translucent images overlap and fold into one another, creating a shifting, unstable surface of gazes and identities.Rather than seeking a single, authentic self, Veil of Veronica reflects on the impossibility of a pure image. It reveals the self as a construction of fragments—layered, mediated, and constantly dissolving under the act of looking. What emerges is not a “true image”, but a fragile trace of presence, suspended between memory and disappearance.



《维罗尼卡之纱》（2021）汲取灵感于基督教传说——圣女维罗妮卡用面纱拭去耶稣面容，意外留下了一幅非人为绘制的“真相”。“维罗尼卡”的拉丁文意为真相（True image）。作品由五张艺术微喷于菲林片的肖像叠加而成，并通过灯箱照亮。半透明的图像相互交叠、扭曲，形成一个不断变动的凝视与身份的表面。本作并不试图寻求单一而纯粹的图像中的自我，而是反思影像中真实感的不可达性。自我在这里是由无数碎片构成的，是层叠、介入、并在凝视中不断消解的存在。浮现于作品中的，不是确定的“真相”，而是一种脆弱而微光的痕迹，悬置在记忆与消逝之间。

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Analog
 模拟 

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Analog (2021) is an installation work that explores the boundaries between nature, time, and image. What film captures is a cross-section of nature, frozen in a single moment, no longer able to pass through the cycles of the seasons.
I print these time-suspended images onto transparent film and reweave them into an organic form—resembling a jellyfish or creeping vine—soft, drifting, almost alive.Finally, the work is returned to the natural environment, back to the place where the gaze of the image first began.


《Analog》（2021） 是一件关于自然、时间与影像边界的装置作品。胶片所捕捉的，是某一刻自然的切面，却无法再经历四季的流转。我将这些被时间定格的图像印于菲林片上，重新编织成一个仿若水母或藤蔓般的有机形态——柔软、游移、近乎生长。最终，它被带回自然之中，回到影像最初凝视的所在。

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 Here I am
我在

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《我在》（2018）是对都市语境中社会身份与个人存在之间张力的探索。在纽约驻留期间，我携带自己放大尺寸的证件照行走于街头——这类图像通常被压缩、标准化，并剥离了个人特质。通过邀请陌生人共同托举这张肖像，我尝试打破证件照的常规解读，将其从行政框架中释放，重新投入公共生活流动而不可预测的肌理之中。个体身份如何在显形与消隐间摇摆，当置身于都市庞大而漠然的律动中，一个人的存在何以既清晰可辨又深陷暧昧。它邀请观者追问：在制度系统与集体空间里，我们如何认知自我与系统中的流动？



Here I Am (2018) is an exploration of the tension between social identity and personal presence within the urban landscape. During a residency in New York, I walked on the city streets carrying an enlarged version of her own ID photo—an object typically compressed, standardized, and stripped of individuality. By inviting strangers to hold the image with her, she disrupted the conventional reading of the ID portrait, releasing it from bureaucratic frameworks into the fluid, unpredictable fabric of public life.In this quiet, performative gesture, Here I Am examines how individual identity oscillates between visibility and erasure, how a person’s presence can remain both clear and profoundly ambiguous when set against the vast, indifferent rhythm of the city. It invites viewers to question how we recognize ourselves and others within institutional systems and collective spaces.

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Fish Tank
鱼缸 

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Can a fish be aware of the existence of its tank? This work attempts to reflect the anxiety and confusion that lie beneath the surface of a seemingly tranquil life. By overlaying, switching, keying, printing, and reconstructing footage of real-life scenes and images of a fish tank, I explore the tension between constructed and perceived realities. The video alternates between two visual layers: one consists of images and text within the fish tank—fragments of reality and records of passing time, forming a secondary, constructed version of the real; the other layer is composed of real-world scenes I have documented over time, creating a contrast and dialogue between lived experience and enclosed observation. The recurring image of an “external hand” symbolizes sudden disruptions and the invisible influence of higher powers—forces that intervene in our reality and over which we have little or no control.



鱼能意识到鱼缸的存在吗？这个作品尝试通过将现实场景与鱼缸影像进行叠加、切换、抠像、冲印与重构，映射出表面宁静生活下的生存焦虑与对复杂现实境况的迷茫。影像由两个部分交替构成：一部分是鱼缸中的图像与文字，它们像是现实的切片，是对时间流逝的记录，也是一种被建构的“次级现实”；另一部分则是我长期积累的现实场景，它们的切换与鱼缸影像形成对照，生成一种新的时空结构。影像中不断出现的“外部之手”象征着突发事件与高层权力的干预，它们打破秩序、扰乱稳定——而我们对此常常无能为力。

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Human theme park
众众乐园

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Human Theme Park (2019) is an interactive video installation that explores the cyclical relationship between viewing and being viewed by displacing the roles of spectator and spectacle. The work draws on a common practice in tourist sites across China, where visitors are photographed in front of green screens and later inserted into idealized souvenir images. This artificial construction of memory and place becomes a conceptual foundation for the piece.

Within the video space, footage of tourists I collected at major landmarks in Beijing is juxtaposed with real-time video of gallery visitors captured by surveillance cameras. The result is a continuously regenerating “paradise” made entirely of tourists—there is no scenery, only people as spectacle. In this loop, viewers become aware that while they watch others, they too are being watched and inserted into the same visual system, revealing the self-referential and consumable nature of contemporary image culture.


《众众乐园》（2019） 是一个交互式影像装置，通过置换观者与景观的位置，营造一种观看与被观看循环往复的体验。作品引用了在景区中常见的绿幕拍照机制——许多旅游景点会让游客站在绿幕前拍摄，再合成进一张理想化的“纪念照”中。这种人为构建的图像现实，也构成了本作的概念基础。 在影像空间中，我将北京各大景点拍摄的游客素材，与现场摄像头实时记录的观众影像并置，创造出一个由游客构成、持续生成的“乐园”。在这里，没有自然风景，只有游客本身成为景观。装置让观众在观看他人时意识到自己的形象也正被并置、观看，从而揭示出当代景观消费中的自我投射与被观看性。

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