Master of Fine Art School of Fine Art

Liyuan Zhu

Liyuan Zhu (born in 2001) is a spontaneous artist based in UK. Her current works are mainly in the form of painting, sculpture, installation, video and performance.

In Liyuan Zhu’s artistic journey, Liyuan embarks upon a relentless quest to dissolve the boundaries between the tangible and intangible, the visible and invisible, the known and unknown.

Drawing inspiration from the eclectic tapestry of contemporary existence, Liyuan navigates the ever-shifting landscapes of culture, technology, and identity. In doing so, Liyuan unravels the complexities of human experience and weaves them into the fabric of Liyuan’s creations. Each piece becomes a palimpsest of narratives, layered with fragments of memory, emotion, and aspiration.

Central to Liyuan’s practice is a profound exploration of the interconnectivity of all things. Liyuan rejects the notion of isolated entities, instead embracing the notion of a dynamic web of relations where everything is in constant flux. Through Liyuan’s work, Liyuan seeks to illuminate the threads that bind us together, transcending the boundaries of space, time, and perception.

 

Contact
liyuanz0098@outlook.com
L.Zhu3@student.gsa.ac.uk
instagram.com
Works

Whisper Me a Spell was inspired by the theme of spiritual rituals in my TSP research. During the research process, I investigated the yin and yang and five elements in traditional Chinese culture, and combined them with the arrangement of the eight trigrams of the Zhouyi Eight Trigrams Formation, with the intention of creating a small spiritual ritual in the exhibition. I tried to convert natural power into spiritual power by making the audience spontaneously sense the linked magnetic field of the human body and the earth through this formation.

Whisper Me a Spell

Creature was inspired by grasshoppers and two-dimensional flat creatures. When painting, I prefer all my senses to be pure and unaffected by any history and culture and role. Influenced by automatism paintings, I started to create a series of 'Creature' paintings, trying to find a way to express the universe in my mind. This series of paintings favoured subconscious expression. At the same time I realised that painting from the subconscious mind is a very practical spiritual therapy in art healing, so I focused very much on the spiritual power I gained from this process, and I was inspired and informed by the compositions and atmospheres of Hilma af Clint's paintings. PROCESS

Creature

The form of this project work is inspired by the fairy tale "The Princess on the Pea". What do you choose to do with those chinky imperfections that lie beneath the surface? The chaos of human nature is buried underneath the white softness, and we will live with it, and to some extent become it. Was vernünftig ist, das ist wirklich; und was wirklich ist, das ist vernünftig.

In the Midst of Softness

Pea's Nightmare

Trap Track