Liu Yi: The Contest Between Reason and Instinct｜Zhejiang Art Museum
2026-02-28 15:01

Exhibition Introduction

In 2022, the “Nanshan 138” project adopted Gaze as its curatorial theme. Through public recruitment and multiple stages including expert review, four artists — Pan Zishen, Geng Xue, Jin Wenli, and Liu Yi — were ultimately selected. From different perspectives, they narrate the forms of things and prototypes of life under humanistic observation. Through the perceptual tension of female discourse, they stimulate an inner exchange of subjectivity between viewer and viewed, achieving an artistic reconciliation between minds through the interpretation of the gaze. “Gaze” constructs a bidirectional visual pathway among artist, artwork, and audience. It advocates for more women to pay attention to their own multiple possibilities, focus on the field of cultural production, and provide richer perspectives and content for contemporary issues.

This exhibition is themed The Hedgehog’s Confusion, presenting Liu Yi’s newly created series of works, including ink painting, acrylic, photography, and other two-dimensional works, as well as multi-screen video and spatial works presented through projection. The works integrate with carefully designed exhibition displays, breaking the spatial boundaries of their individual presentations. Taking the relationship between the hedgehog and the balloon as the point of entry, the exhibition discusses different relationships and emotions between people. Through artistic practices such as hybrid virtual reality, and from a female perspective with narratives rich in Eastern connotation, it breaks the boundary between body and object, conveying more diverse emotions and messages to the public.

Artwork Appreciation

Love and Bond

The animated film Morning and Dusk That Require No Maintenance has a duration of 26 minutes. Liu Yi collaborated with the Cyprus Ministry of Culture and Education, Dutch contemporary animation curator Gerben Scherme, computer vision expert Zhang Rui, and a Cypriot band, spending three years to complete it.

The film moves between fantasy and reality, recounting the artist’s careful observation and recollection of life during her residency in Cyprus in 2019. Through the artist’s lens, what is presented is the continuous local landscape and lifestyle of Cyprus. The simple and gentle narrative depicts ordinary people and everyday matters in a small village. During this time, the artist unintentionally glimpsed into Vrionis’s family — he and his mother carefully care for his sister with intellectual disabilities… Here, the artist directly encountered the extraordinary group of caregivers for people with intellectual disabilities and came to understand their living conditions and the pressures they face. In the video, we also see the most genuine reality. Within the plain details and moments, tender warmth, moving love, and the bonds between family members hidden beneath daily life are revealed.

I Really Want to Like You

The hedgehog and the balloon represent a collision between softness and sharpness. The hedgehog’s natural protective spines isolate any intimate relationship. When hedgehogs attempt to keep each other warm, even slight movement may instinctively cause them to accidentally hurt one another.

In the 2-minute video I Really Want to Like You, a prickly hedgehog and a balloon are placed in the same space. We anticipate what might happen next, but when and how it will happen remains unresolved.

“I Really Want to Like You” is a very brief state — one step forward is liking, one step back is no longer liking. Similar to a transient state in physics, the condition may collapse at any moment.

This is a contest between reason and instinct. Instinct drives you to move forward bravely, yet the possibility of failure makes it difficult to bear, and reason often pulls you backward. Such expression also speaks of the helplessness of unattainable desire, or the entanglement between longing and reality. Every day, people must face such choices.

At present, we are cautious and hesitant toward many people and many things. The life we once bravely longed for, the travel plans we once had, even the people we admired, quietly disappear from our list of likes without leaving any trace.

Can CiCi Embrace the Bubble?

In the work CiCi and Bubble, although covered in spines, it maintains the same rhythm of movement as the bubble while also observing a safe boundary. Though cautious, they can still coexist and like each other.

Carefully Created Unknown Errors

The Unknown Error series emerges from chaos — without pattern, full of noise — and the noise transforms into an ordered state: image.

Burning

This new animation Burning lasts 4 minutes and 30 seconds. The film depicts us today and the era we live in, where the boundary between body and object is constantly changing. Liu Yi collaborated with professionals from China, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and the United States. Computer vision expert Zhang Rui constructed a generative adversarial network, working with Liu Yi to produce nearly 5,000 images.

The artist enters virtual reality using an anthropological method to create characters, making them part of the environment or becoming the environment itself. These are then embedded into the social reality we inhabit, prompting reflection on the transformation of the human body and the definition of other possible species. In the film Fire, whether the relationship between humans and flame is attachment or burning injury is a question each viewer will ultimately answer for themselves.

Exhibition Site

Looking back at the exhibition hall, soft rubber spikes are scattered in various touchable corners. Your reason tells you these soft spikes will not harm you — but will your instinct still drive you to touch them again without hesitation next time?

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Related Artists: LIU YI 刘毅