We were lucky to catch up with Hailing Liu recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hailing, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I have a very sensitive and curious personality which keeps nurturing my creativity. I like building up imaginary world in my mind since I was young, and I do realize myself having strong desire to express something all the time. As a visual artist and animator, living in my own life and feeling the experience carefully give me lots of inspiration. I turn these real-life experience into something imaginary through my artwork. Aside from personal observation in real life, I think building connections with other creatives, seeing what other people are doing, finding creative community is also very important to stimulate creativity. It helps to see diverse perspectives from others especially when I immerse too much in my head!
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a visual artist, digital animator and motion graphic designer. I mainly work with computer-based media. Aside from that, my practice also includes installation, writing, sculpture and printing.
I define myself as a composite of fine artist and graphic designer. In my art practice, I address collisions and alignments between commercials and art-making through digital media, as well as the hybrid incorporations that lead to open access of art and culture to more audience. I am interested concept of living as a “digital diaspora” and how this identity breaks the barrier of physical space under social, cultural and political constraints, especially in my home country China. My work proceeds to present in different digital media : video, virtual installation, social media persona, AR and VR experience. Conceptually my work investigates several topics in playful ways: How digital images consumption constructs our perceptions and perspectives in the real world? How the information and meanings behind digital images impact our attitude to social-political changes and concept of “truth”? What is the potential of digital space and technology to build alternate reality, to archive personal history, and to engage in social activity?
My installation art project, Ice Cream Discourse, will soon be exhibited in a group show, “ Absurdity: In Dada We Trust”, juried by WMG co-founders, Kelly P Hensen and Beate Minkovski. The show will be on display from July 22 to August 19, 2023 in Woman Made Gallery, Chicago in United States.
For more information about the group show “Absurdity: In Dada We Trust”,
Please check: https://womanmade.org/absurdity-in-dada-we-trust/
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
This is a huge question for me! I can only speak from my personal experience: Being honest about myself, finding the positive sides of every little experience, showing genuine interests of others. Being an emerging artist myself, I am still learning how to show my creativity through my work to the public. I believe not only one’s professional creative skills matters, the efforts and willingness of letting and helping others to understand what they do matters too.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
I guess my biggest growth in the last year would be developing a healthier mindset in my career- self-validating my own uniqueness and being brave to make decisions that truly works for myself. I learnt to celebrate every little success in my career. I know it sounds like a cliche, but I also believe most of the creatives could self-doubt sometimes when they are walking their long, long pathway with so many uncertainties. Nothing is more important than self-supporting emotionally and mentally in any conditions, this is what I learnt from the past 12 months and I am still practicing!
Contact Info:
- Website: liu-hailing.com
- Instagram: @hailingjo
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hailingliu/
- Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user106646401
Image Credits
p.2 : Ice Cream Discourse, photo by Jiaqi Li
