For EXPO Chicago 2022, Chambers Fine Art is pleased to present a collection of new photographs by artist Pixy Liao. The personal and intimate photographs in her long-standing series Experimental Relationship challenge views on heterosexual relationships and explores what dominance could look like.
For 16 years, Pixy Liao and her boyfriend/muse Moro, a Brooklyn-based musician she met in college, have been exploring and pushing the boundaries of what a relationship is and the expected gender roles in a heterosexual couple. The exhibition, which features a collection of new images from the series, focuses on portraying the dynamic of their relationship but is also challenging conventional socio-cultural ideas of gender constructions and questions of nationality in a globalized world.
Their age differences (Liao is five years older than Moro) and their native origins (Japanese vs Chinese) are two starting points in the project. But Pixy Liao is also interested in powerful women and female leadership. And by revealing uncomfortable aspects she also puts herself in charge of the spectator’s gaze.
“Moro made me realize that heterosexual relationships do not need to be standardized. The purpose of the experiment is to break the inherent relationship model and reach a new equilibrium,” says Liao.
The project is an ongoing, long-term experiment with staged photographs. Pixy Liao’s images are composed so that the combination of colors, shapes and focus attracts us towards the most uncomfortable yet revealing aspects. In a world that idealizes the female body and always originates from the western beauty ideal, Liao’s photographs present new, contemporary options.
Pixy Liao’s works are currently exhibited at a group show at Foto Wien Festival in Vienna, as well as a group show at the ROSL Clubhouse in London.