Leah Liu
Yutong

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In my practice, I continually explore systems of connection, recursion, and the matrices formed by modular repetition. Mutual witnessing activates my work, breathing life into stillness. Each encounter with my work feels like folding a sheet of paper—a touch where two surfaces meet within a third dimension that rises from flatness. Along the creases, where matter clusters and layers into dense strata, my perception of space and time condenses, responding to the proximity of forms as they fold into being. I often observe how ambivalence arises from unspoken tension between objecthood and space—when edges converge to seam space into a corner, when gravity presses the base of objects flat against the earth, when a string cradles its weight at the edge of stillness, tracing a soft arc as it leans toward the ground. These forms carve their contours with tangible certainty and tether their presence to the deep force of the earth. Drawn into this coil of internal presence, I feel empathy towards the sheer beingness of things etching a pricking in my mind. 

The residue of material transformation is manifested through an eastern alchemical lens as the depth of the matter rises in my reciprocal reverie. I penetrate my working hand into the paste of water and earth and dip myself in its tactile qualities. This paste draws a harmony between celestial and terrestrial bodies, as the primordial essence of the matter mirrors the order of the cosmos. The universe folds itself along the earth’s horizon, and the roots of the material soften me with each encounter. Once the paste hardened, I begin to understand casting techniques as a form of fossilization, condensing the irreversible forces of time, heat, and deceleration within the material as it attaches to its inertial mold. The fastening of hinges, screws, brackets, and other common hardware grants flexibility and impermanence once the form solidifies, allowing space to be shaped and reconfigured within a temporal dimension. My work seeks to explore how unseen forces—such as gravity—disrupt the monumentality created by cast modular units that form a rhythm of repeating structure. Through these deviations, I invite viewers to uncover the intricacies between forms and query how recurrence or disturbances are precipitated within each encounter between themselves and my work.

CV upon request.