Maker Profile: Yusi Liu
Yusi Liu grew up in Beijing and is pursuing a PhD in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College in the United States. She received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2018 in Classics and Art History. Her research interests include space and memory, cultural heritage and museum, intellectual history, and classical reception. She is particularly interested in the convergence of archaeology and contemporary art and its relation to the global political sphere. Yusi is the assistant editor of art of the Offing Magazine and a researcher at The New Centre for Research & Practice. Currently, she is a visiting curator at Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum.
1) Have the events of 2020 impacted your creative process ?
For me, the situation is a bit complicated. I live in Philadelphia to do my graduate studies, but in March I came back home to Beijing to be with my family during the pandemic. It is difficult for me to continue my studies and research remotely. The impact is negative because I lost the intellectual environment plus the physicality of books. As the end of the year approaches, I feel arrested by the internet and zoom fatigue.
On the other hand, after coming back to China, I was rather fortunate. I got a visiting curator position at a museum in Beijing in addition to opportunities to curate exhibitions and organize talks and events, while also continuing graduate school and research online. It is good for my wellbeing to have a space to communicate, share and learn. My interest and value in public facing writing and criticism has grown greatly. I am still trying to find a good balance and adjusting myself to this new and multi-temporal COVID lifestyle.
Don’t get me wrong—Although I don’t like to stare at screens of different sizes all day, it is important to get the best out of what I have at hand. The internet offers me opportunities to connect with people from all over the world, especially during the pandemic. After leaving Madison in 2018, I felt distant and always wanted to connect back. For sure 2020 is unprecedented, but in this drifting chaos I am lucky to have gotten to know Rachel Werner via zoom and started our collaboration with the Little Book Project WI!
2) How do you continually seek out or discover new inspiration?
I like to read different theories and talk to people. I often find inspirations from people and things around me. The pandemic has limited my physical movements and contacts with others, but I have been going out for walks to observe things more closely and contemplate. I like to focus on little things around me. Most importantly, listening to and learning from people are key.
3) Give an example of an effective "artistic collaboration" you either studied or directly participated in?
Art En Route was a public art project Alex Polach and I co-organized in 2016. The project paired creative writers with visual artists from Dane County to create uniquely commissioned works of art. The final, collaborative works were presented at an exhibition in Wisconsin Union gallery, while they were also photographed and installed on the exterior bus wraps of various Madison Metro Transit buses running throughout Madison from October 1st 2017 – January 20th, 2018. The collaboration between Alex and I was fantastic—we each found our strengths and were able to combine them for a successful collaboration, which was important in writing those grant proposals and getting our funding. It was also effective with regard to the collaborative spaces we created for the artist and writers we selected then paired. Two of our participants, Johnson Vaj and Antonio Byrd, have become good friends; it is always so lovely to see photos of them together on social media.
Most definitely, it is also always a wonderful experience to collaborate with Ben Orozco! We started working together a while ago when we were still at UW-Madison. Our work and working philosophy complement—and supplement—each other. We are both interested in theories so it is inspiring to see how we approach them differently as a curator and a graphic designer, then combine and refine them through our collaborations or communications. I am always learning new things and thinking more deeply with him.
4) Fave installations and exhibitions you encountered in 2020?
Definitely “Artists in Quarantine,” public intellectuals, and the trouble with empty heroics” by Jörg Heiser. It is not common to see negative reviews and harsh criticism these days, so when something like this appears, especially with even harsher and better responses, it is exciting. Along the same lines, recently a Chinese art writer Stephanie Chow gave a bad and sour review on the ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair and the exhibition Ten Thousand Things at Nanjing Sifang Art Museum. I really enjoyed the (unfortunately short-lived) drama it spawned. I hope to see more vigorous and provocative criticism in the future.