MLitt Fine Art Practice School of Fine Art
Ziming Liu
Ziming Liu’s practice is rooted in the intersection of personal narratives and cultural memory. The fragmented reconstruction of personal experiences, the shifting boundaries of urban spaces, and the industrial culture form the foundation of his work. From these individual experiences, he explores broader issues of cultural belonging and identity. Through installations, sculptures, and photographic narratives, Liu examines how memory is preserved, activated, and reinterpreted. His current work focuses on reinterpreting traditional Chinese cultural elements within contemporary contexts.
Liu’s installations and sculptures incorporate a wide range of materials—from wood and metal to industrial remnants, found objects, and electromechanical devices. These elements, reimagined and recombined through contemporary perspectives, are infused with new life, evoking nostalgia and desire. His work prevents memory from stagnating, allowing it to live vibrantly, guiding the audience to reconsider their relationship with history. His creations are both personal and social, creating a space of resonance that connects the self to the community, the past to the present, and tradition to transformation—where memory does not fade, but continues to live on and speak.
From September to September
This year’s journey set out from the starting point of September and came to a close at September’s end. At first, I rejected creative elements tied to Chinese tradition, seeking instead a contemporary, cool detachment from the symbols bound to my own bloodline. Yet the days away from my homeland made me, for the first time, truly feel the weight of “absence”—with homesickness and a sense of cultural belonging quietly taking root in the everyday life of a foreign land.
Over the course of this year’s exploration, I moved through rejection, drifting, searching, and return. The sequence of works itself forms a path: beginning with a map, passing through lattices and boundaries, moving through flow and sediment, and finally arriving once more at the door of home. The September that both begins and ends this journey is not the close of a cycle, but a reconstruction of identity and culture—a way of stitching together self, memory, and land once again.
Geometric symphony
After this entry, work was not exhibited in the Degree Show.
Inspired by urban communities, this modular set simulates the diversity and changeability of modern cities through a detachable and reconfigurable wooden structure. Each module can be regarded as a fragment of the urban fabric, reflecting both the fragmented nature of contemporary cities and the organic and flexible composition of communities.
JUMP!JUMP!JUMP!
In China, there is a special set of memories known as the “Millennium Memories.” The millennial generation, roughly born between 1981 and 2000, coincided their formative years with the emergence of the internet and computer science, as well as a period of rapid national development. After a brief childhood, the entire society, propelled by progressive ideas, accelerated its development. The societal machinery roared forward, and we, too, had to quicken our pace to catch up with the torrent of the times…
Pseudo-artistic series
This series of works represents my questioning and reflection on the very essence of “art,” particularly the kind that relies solely on the massive accumulation of materials. Throughout years of studying art and visiting exhibitions, I have often asked myself: “Does the mere piling up of materials or readymades suffice to create meaningful art?” Today, with concepts being stretched to their extremes, many creations have gradually degenerated into formulaic production or visual spectacle. I began to ponder and reflect: “Where is the true breakthrough for art? How can it avoid becoming a repetition of vague symbols or a performance of quantity?” My works Building something out of nothing and Cycle of oblivion are experimental pieces imbued with self-critique and satire. I invite both myself and the audience to confront the dilemma of such “pseudo-art,” forcing us to ask: “Are we truly looking at ‘art,’ or just a heap of meaningless objects?” Moving forward, I will continue to explore the theme of “pseudo-art” in a series of works that imitate and satirize the surface traps of contemporary art.
TIRE!TIRE!TIRE!
When I was in junior high school, I was a poor student in the eyes of society, at that time I loved the Internet, often skipping classes to surf the Internet, and stayed out late at night, at that time my mother bought an electric bicycle to find me home, often looking for me in the evening at one Internet cafe after another, and would patiently persuade me, probably because of the care of this kind of mothers changed me, So the tire represents my mother’s deep love for me, and also my desire to repay her.
