RMIT Gallery Excursion Liu Xiau Xian

The Couple 2004 Edition 2

The artist's work deals with issues of cultural identity in large scale digital photography. It is playful, soulful, striking and witty.

The core of Liu Xiao Xian’s practice engages in a comparative study of Eastern and Western cultures. Born in China and raised during the Cultural Revolution, Liu Xiao Xian left Beijing for Sydney after the Tiananmen Square massacre. On this 20th anniversary of Tiananmen, RMIT Gallery is focusing on the artist’s photographs and sculptures, which explore the nuances between the East and the West.

When you walk into this exhibition the first thing you see are 3 large faces,(reincarnation - Mao, Buddha and I, Version 2, 2003 these three large prints are made up of 300 panels, each panal is a smaller photograph of the final print.) On the walls are photographs of families, on the floor are chess tables and utensils. This exhibition show art pieces from the east and west and how it influences our lives.

The couple, 2004 Bronze and Camphor wood was my favourite sculpture of the sxhibition, I didn't get it at first all i saw was 1 wooden sculpture and 1 bronze sculpture i could'nt see what was behind the artwork until David explained it clearly to me, the wooden sculpture showed underneath the skin which was lungs, brain, heart etc, the bronze sculpture had little pin holes all over its body which showed two complety different types of medicene that is used, the wooden sculpture showed the western medicene and the bronze statue showed the eastern medicene.

Another piece of work i liked was Home - 2002 - 03, Edition of 10, Lamboa print. Large format photograph of the Chinese family situated in London. This print shows you can be somewhere else in the world but you still have your home to go back too, in which this case China. The main strenghs that are shown in this print are the use of colour and the composition of the photograph with the guards on each side (protecting).

I enjoyed this exhibition there was some exhibits i didnt understand but i guess you get that sometimes but it was very interesting to see the differences between the eastern and western world.