Date：10/11/ 2024

Artist Qingyuan Liang's practice offers a distinctly divergent path: a form of ‘soft resistance’ that presents gentleness on the surface while harbouring resilience at its core. Her creations, from the illustration piece Bloom to the fabric-based art zine A Lion Wants a Hug, are not a refuge from reality but meticulously constructed ‘emotional topographies’ inviting viewers to pause, discern, and mend their inner folds.

At the core of Liang's art lies the exploration and transformation of ‘vulnerability.’ She regards painting as a ‘form of care,’ where brushstrokes become ears attuned to fragile moments. In Bloom, the protagonist Miao's emotional journey following her father's passing is not depicted through dramatic lamentation, but through the sedimentation of everyday conversations with family and children, and subtle observations of the changing seasons. This approach dissolves the solid narrative of tragedy, transforming it into a breathing, growing organic process. In the end, grief is not ‘overcome’ but achieves a silent reconciliation and continuity amidst spring blossoms. This embodies Liang's unique mode of expression: she doesn't depict the surface of emotion but charts its internal structure, its undulations, and the possibilities of connection.

This ‘soft’ aesthetic finds embodied expression in her selection and fusion of media. Whether through the hazy yet vivid memory textures rendered in coloured pencil for Travelogue of Egypt, or the Heidi-like purity of homesickness flowing from the watercolours in Travels in Switzerland, her hand-drawn language itself declares a position. Amidst the digital tide, she upholds the warmth of the brushstroke and the deposits of time. Her art practice (art zines, scroll paintings) further expands this intimacy. The work Travelogue of Egypt uses acid-free paper for its cover and is bound with thread sewing. Fragments from the journey – ‘enigmatic number plates, the piety of worshippers, the weight of cautious respect in gestures’ – are physically stitched together into a tangible book of memory. The act of viewing thus transforms into a private act of leafing through and recollecting.

Thus, the recurring motif of embrace in Qingyuan Liang's work transcends warm fable in A Lion Wants a Hug, becoming a profound metaphor through the embrace gained by returning to one's authentic self. It symbolises how art, as an action, provides a space for visibility and acceptance of those ‘unnoticed moments, unspoken gestures, and emotions requiring time to unfold.’ The softness in her work embodies a deliberate, generative force. This practice, focused on micro-narratives and emotional healing, undoubtedly constitutes a vital cultural compensation and a provision of psychological landscapes.