Pixy Liao: Experimental Relationship

Quotation about the work from Pixy Liao:

“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 5 years younger than me, I felt that whole concept of relationships changed, all the way around. I became the person who has more authority & power. One of my male friends even questioned 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, & why not! I started to experiment with this relationship. I would set up all kinds of situations for Moro and I to perform in the photos. My photos explore the alternative possibilities of heterosexual relationships. They question what is the norm of heterosexual relationships. What will happen if man & woman exchange their roles of sex & roles of power. Because my boyfriend is Japanese, and I am Chinese, this project also describes a love and hate relationship. This project is an ongoing project which grows with our real relationship but is never meant to be a documentation.”

An article in response to her work posted by FotoRoom was titled Pixy Liao’s Conceptual Photographs Show The She is the Man in her Love Relationship, which personally I feel is a misunderstood and offensive title for the article. The work is not about showing she is a ‘Man’, but about showing the ‘types of relationships that can exist between people’ (Pixy Liao, 2017) and perhaps the writer of this article does not yet understand the way in which roles are changing, and still defines relationship roles in a heteronormative way, for example, simply a man behaving like a man and a women behaving like a women – what ever that means. Despite the misunderstood and misguided title, the article contains some interesting anecdotes from Liao talking about the work. Something I found very inspiring was the way in which Liao describes the images as ‘Painting with reality’ as she has used her real life experiences as inspiration for the work, then visually represents her themes and ideas. She also states, as seen above, that the work is ‘never meant to be a documentation’, which can be interpreted through her relationship, it is ever changing, every growing (like the work) and therefore each moment is so multi dimentional that nothing is simply a documentation, or recording of a moment, but a combination of many moments, feelings and experiences, that have the freedom to change over time. In this way, my work will also not be a documentation or a recording, it will be a journey of experiences, some of them visually painted in images, my work is also ongoing, and cannot ever truly be finished, as much like Pixy Liao’s work, my relationship with my family is forever changing and developing and cannot be defined by any number of images. However current feelings and themes can be explored through the work. I would like to mainly use the image making process as a personal and visual exploration of my own connection and relationship with my brothers, much like Liao did with her relationship with her boyfriend.

Something that I find very interesting in this work in the use of roles, performance, dominance and power. Liao has used the work to show a power dynamic between her and her boyfriend that is unconventional. She objectifies him through the work and makes him feel passive and as if she is in control, particularly in images such as when her boyfriend is lying naked on the bed wrapped in a blanket, he appears to look like a sushi roll, which not only is humorously objectifying his body, but also a racial comment, as he is Japanese. Moreover the image of him wearing a dress, she, as the photographer, has directed him to put on this outfit and pose in this way, showing how she has control and holds the power in this way. While this work is a dynamic between a girlfriend and a boyfriend, I am very interested by this power dynamic and how Liao has visually represented it, and feel that I could use this technique in my own work. The way in which she has the photographer has the power is an interesting idea, and in my own work, subject, and shooting technique this is also the case. I am directing my brothers to wear specific clothing and look a particular way, therefore in this act of being the photographer I am in the position of power, where this is not the case in every day life.

Moreover, I feel as though the use of roles in this work is very interesting. Liao explores the role of the man and women is a relationship, and in my own work, I am exploring my own role as the sister and Rowan and Jacks role as the brother. I am interested to show the way in which these roles overpower and dominate each other, who has the power and control, and I would like to try and create a feeling of more dominant and less dominant roles in the work.