Photographer Pixy Liao met her current partner in 2006, when both were international students in Memphis, Tennessee. They soon became collaborators in art as well as life, working in sculpture, video and a music group called PIMO. Liao soon began to make her boyfriend – Japanese-born artist and musician Takahiro Morooka (Moro) –the subject of her work. The result is Experimental Relationship, an ongoing series that was first started 18 years ago. The images welcome viewers into their world – intimate, at times almost to the point of discomfort. They’re also absurd, playful and often funny. The series is now on display at Art Institute of Chicago. Relationship Material is Liao’s first exhibition in the city and features 45 works from the project. Assistant Curator Yechen Zhao says; “Liao’s photographs create an arena in which she and Moro constantly redefine what it means to be a couple. They prod at heteronormative ideas of power, desire and care in relationships, challenging viewers to imagine new ways of living together.”
In Liao’s world, gender stereotypes are turned on their head. One image shows Liao as she carries a naked Moro in a fireman’s lift. It echoes the overused trope of a damsel in distress being carried to safety by a male saviour. The shot also plays with power dynamics through clothing – here, the woman is clothed, and the man left exposed. Liao explains: “As a woman brought up in China, I used to think I could only love someone who is older and more mature than me, who can be my protector and mentor. Then I met my current boyfriend, Moro. Since he is five years younger than me, I felt that the whole concept of relationships changed, all the way around I became a person who has more authority and power. One of my male friends even questions how I could choose a boyfriend the way a man would choose a girlfriend. And I thought: ‘Damn right. That’s exactly what I’m doing, and why not!’” Perhaps no picture illustrates this better than Learning to Live Together. In it, Moro is draped across a kitchen table, a papaya strategically placed across his crotch. The artist sits next to him, spoon in hand, ready to enjoy the fruit.
Relationship Material celebrates Liao and Moro’s many ways of being and working together, presenting photographs that span the duration of Experimental Relationship alongside sculptures and music videos. Together, these works manifest Liao’s efforts to “reach a new equilibrium” in a partnership that is both artistic and romantic, examining questions of fantasy, desire and control. It is a deeply collaborative process. In an interview with Aperture, she says: “There are so many things that cannot be controlled by me – it all depends on him, like his facial expressions, his body gestures. And he also improvises during the shoot.” The camera shutter is often seen in his hand. Liao may have authority over the project, but the “decisive moment” belongs to Moro. Here, we see that the series offers more than a subversion of the male gaze. It reimagines how intimacy and creative collaboration function.
Experimental Relationship is a visual record of a couple’s life and a long-term performance of a couple operating outside of heteronormative conventions. In each shot, Liao and Moro reinvent intimacy, leaving ego, embarrassment or expectations aside. At once introspective and deeply irreverent, the exhibition at Art Institute of Chicago is a refreshing reevaluation of modern love.
Pixy Liao: Relationship Material is at Art Institute of Chicago until 8 December: artic.edu
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1&4. Pixy Liao. Door Stopper, 2017. Courtesy of the artist. © Pixy Liao.
2. Pixy Liao. Fmin9, 2021. Courtesy of the artist. © Pixy Liao.
3. Pixy Liao. Open Kimono, 2018. Courtesy of the artist. © Pixy Liao.
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