Elegy
Size:
55x100cm
Materials: Silver Plate Printing
Year of work: 2023
Description:
Can nature help us face what we’ve learned to forget?
Death is rarely discussed in Chinese households, wrapped in taboo and quietly denied. With Elegy, Liu turns to the natural world to speak what words cannot. Drawing from traditional Chinese poetry and visual motifs, she finds metaphor in fading flowers, dusk light, and soft rainfall. Shot on silver plate and framed like classical scrolls, the work blends cultural memory with personal reflection.
Each image feels suspended, still, mournful, yet serene. Liu reclaims the landscape as a site of quiet reckoning, showing how grief has always existed in our surroundings. Here, death is not violent or distant, but part of a natural rhythm. Elegy invites viewers to slow down, to notice what fades and returns, and to find peace in the acceptance of impermanence.