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ArtShe photographs him naked or scantily clad insubmissive poses. Chinese artist Pixy Liao onpower and trust+ FOLLOW

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A personalised news feedof stories that matter toyou• Pixy Liao’s photos of her and her male partner – often shown naked and in a
submissive pose – aim to smash gender stereotypes, but not to wage a war
against menLearn more• The Shanghai-born artist says she aims to re@ect their ‘deep mutual trust’ as acouple in her work, on show in her Crst solo Hong Kong exhibition
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Erika Na+ FOLLOW

Published: 5:15pm, 29 Jan, 2024

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Shanghai-born artist Pixy Liao’s “Comfort Zone”, the titular photo of her Lrst Hong Kong solo exhibition. Photo: Pixy Liao/Blindspot Gallery

30 Jan 2024

Images of Pixy Liao and her long-term male partner, who isoften photographed naked, tend to elicit strong reactions.
Some people may find them offensive; others may find thatBusinessHong Kong High Courtorders EvergrandeGroup to liquidate
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they scratch an itch in their psyche they didn’t know existed.
If anything, the Shanghai-born artist’s first solo exhibitionin Hong Kong, belies its title, “Comfort Zone”.

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Cupid’s Kiss (2019), Liao’s partner, who is referred to as
Moro, is seen lying prone and passive on Liao’s lap wearing
nothing apart from a pair of pulled-up white cotton socks
and what looks like an apron tied around his waist.
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“Bed Wrestling 3014 (Rear Chin Lock)”, featured in Liao’s Hong Kong exhibition.
Photo: Pixy Liao/Blindspot Gallery

Liao, staring straight into the camera, is dressed in a terry
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cloth robe with a mandarin collar, her left fist raised towards
the sky. In it, she is clutching the camera’s shutter release
above Moro’s exposed buttocks.
In Story Time (2022), a fully dressed Liao is sitting in a chairholding a copy of Emmanuelle, the French novel about female
sexual liberation. A naked Moro is seen kneeling at Liao’s
feet, looking attentive.

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“I imagined that I was a female teacher teaching Moro about
female sexuality,” Liao says with a smile.
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Liao is bemused by the fact that even in 2024, photos of her
younger, Japanese partner posing naked still manage toshock.

18 Jan 2024

She has been exhibiting staged photos of the two of themsince 2008, shortly after her ongoing series called“Experimental Relationship” began.
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I want him to be comfortable. So he will kindof adjust his body based on how he feels
Pixy Liao, on sharing control with herpartner Moro

Read more

But then again, convention is formed by centuries of deepseated bias. Consider that in 1989, the feminist collective theGuerilla Girls had to ask: “Do women have to be naked toenter the Met. Museum?” That was because they found that‘My life is a string ofserendipities’: Hong Kong
photo art gallery founder

85 per cent of nude paintings at New York’s Metropolitan
Museum of Art were of women, while 95 per cent of theRead moreartists whose work was exhibited there were men.
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Liao says she occasionally gets hate comments online fromthose disturbed by her work. But she wants to make clear that

Read more

she is not calling for war against men, nor is she pushing for
women to have revenge and assume dominance over men.
Instead, her photos reflect how she and Moro flexibly sharecontrol and power in their relationship after years ofexperimentation and finding their own comfort zone.

‘Freedom’: the Taiwanesenaturists defying social –and legal – norms“Space Girl Met Earth Boy 4804”, which is featured in Liao’s Hong Kong exhibition.
Photo: Pixy Liao/Blindspot Gallery

She explains that Moro’s vulnerability on camera is only
possible because the two have built deep mutual trust andfirm boundaries.
“During the photo shoot, it’s kind of like a jam session. He
has a lot of his own way of controlling things. I would have avery concrete idea of what I want to do. But I want him to be
comfortable.
“So he will kind of adjust his body based on how he feels andwhat he thinks he should be like in that situation,” Liao says.
She has also been respectful of what he feels comfortable
with, she says. “No full- frontal nudity,” she says.
Evidence of the alternating power dynamic in the photos is
the way the cable release is sometimes held by Liao,sometimes by Moro.
At first, it wasn’t intentional that they would take turns incontrolling when the photo would be taken. Liao simply
didn’t have the strength to press the button, so Moro had todo it.
“A long time when he was the only one who could control thecable release, I would just be waiting there, not knowing
when he’s going to squeeze. He might take his time and press
when I’m blinking my eyes,” Liao says. “I worked out,gained some strength and now I can do it.”“G7b9”, which is featured in Liao’s Hong Kong exhibition. Photo: Pixy Liao/Blindspot
Gallery

In that sense, Intertwined, one of her latest works, may
portray the couple’s shared control and power in the moststraightforward manner.
In the photo, the couple sit in a bathtub. Both of them arenaked, looking into each other’s eyes while holding on to thecable release together. The long camera cable that loops
around their necks multiple times reflects the important role
photography plays in their relationship.
Liao says her work is possible only because they both feelcompletely safe with each other, and that’s where the title ofthe exhibition, “Comfort Zone”, comes from.

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In a photograph titled Comfort Zone, one of the biggest in theexhibition, which is printed on the wall of the gallery, Liaopeeks out from between Moro’s legs, right under his crotch.
“I think this one’s very funny because in Chinese we havethis saying ‘The humiliation of being under somebody’scrotch’. But for me, it’s actually a comfort zone. It’s almost
like the secret of our relationship.
“The reason we can collaborate on many levels is because we
feel comfortable with each other,” Liao says.
“He is like a shelter or support for me and I think I mean thesame things to him. So even though this might not be aconventionally ‘good’ pose, I feel very comfortable because
we are each other’s comfort zone.”“Comfort Zone”, Blindspot Gallery, 15/F, Po Chai Industrial
Building, 28 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Wong Chuk Hang. Tue-Sat
10.30am-6.30pm. Until March 9.

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Erika Na+ FOLLOW

Erika Na joined the Post in 2021. Originally from South Korea, shestudied international affairs with a focus on Asia in the US, followedby studying law and journalism in Hong Kong. Before joining SCMP,
she worked as a Hong Kong foreign correspondent for Arirang
Radio where she regularly updated news from the city and also as
an intern at NBC News covering stories from Asia.

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I was born and raised in Ghent, one of the bigger cities in Belgium. It’s alively, cultural and very beautiful city.
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