LIU Wa
조회 1,689
관리자 2020-09-05 16:04
Born 1994 in Beijing, China
Lives in New York, USA, and Beijing
LIU Wa, Devil's Ivy, 2020, Watercolor on paper, 26 × 36 cm (30)
LIU Wa works with drawings, paintings and video, and for the last few years, she has turned her drawings into a virtual reality work. Devil’s Ivy (2020) is a video essay that examines the distorted lines between reality and fiction, truth and fake news, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It sends the viewer on a surreal trip to the city of Wuhan under its lockdown, onto the virus infected cruise ship The Diamond Princess, and the mass grave on Hart Island in the north eastern side of New York City. As the invisible virus morphs into bizarre symbolic elements, it exposes issues embedded in society from long before the contagion, such as public surveillance and social distrust. Devil’s Ivy is a response to the bias, contradictory narratives, and conspiracy theories that floated through internet during the spring of 2020. The work’s title is inspired by a commonplace vine named Devil’s Ivy — a plant that is (almost) impossible to exterminate and stays green even in the dark.
Racing Thoughts (2019) is a two-channel video installation, also based on LIU Wa’s drawings. The work traces the artist’s discursive internet surfing by juxtaposing both clinical and humanistic approaches to emotions.