For many people, Lucy Liu is an actor, an icon, and perhaps most unforgettably, one of Charlie’s Angels. However, surprisingly for some, she is also a visual artist. At her exhibition at The Popular Institute in Manchester...
For many people, Lucy Liu is an actor, an icon, and perhaps most unforgettably, one of Charlie’s Angels. However, surprisingly for some, she is also a visual artist. At her exhibition at The Popular Institute in Manchester, Liu is exhibiting a new series under the title Totem, in which she has used a variety of mediums, including fabrics and thread, to create works that are both physically engaging and beautifully lyrical. AnOther spent time with the actor-cum-artist to find out more about the lesser-known side of her artistic output.
In Totem you work with thread, linen and canvas to create a mass of intersecting shapes and lines. What was the inspiration for this body of work?
I'm using Totem as a metaphor for the spine. For me, the spine is emblematic of the essentially universal quality of the materiality of our existence. The common fact that we have bodies transcends race, religion and creed.
I began focusing on the spine as an image and idea after I suffered what I thought were physical injuries in that area. Actually they were emotional injuries that just manifest themselves physically. We hold these emotional tensions and personal histories in our physical bodies – which means the relationship between the physical and emotional is often more complex and metaphorical than we might think.
Your interest in materiality and its relationship to the human form is clear through this exhibition. What is it about mixed medium that appeals to you?
I started working with collage and mixed media as I've always loved working with my hands. I find being tactile is the easiest way to express myself. Also when I was a kid, I used to spend a lot of time playing in a broken down, abandoned building near where I lived. I used to love finding and collecting all sorts of discarded objects which I always felt were full of meanings – even if I had to imagine what they were. That’s why I incorporate found objects into my works. They are containers of emotions and memories.
"The spine is emblematic of the essentially universal quality of the materiality of our existence. The common fact that we have bodies transcends race, religion and creed."
It’s always interesting to hear about the way individual artists work. What are your inspirations and how do you go about creating?
I love travelling, watching other people, going to different countries seeing how people celebrate culture. In Japan, for example, they write notes and hang them on trees. In Africa, forms are carved on wood for protection.
Most people obviously know you for your work as an actor, rather than a visual artist. Is it difficult to marry the two sides of your creative career?
It's not difficult for me, it's second nature. Although some people may have issues with these dual activities. It’s certainly true that sometimes your public person precedes who you are, or might be, as an artist. That's why I operated under a pseudonym for a while.
What made you revert back to using Lucy Liu having operated under an artistic pseudonym?
Because you have to embrace what's going to come at you. I was trying to let the work stand on its own but the work can't stand on its without someone behind it. When you understand a history of a piece, you understand it better.
How does being an artist differ from being an actor? Do you find that being an actor inhibits people’s perception of you as a visual artist?
When you're acting, the scale is larger and as an artist it's usually about an individual experience because the ultimate is that the more individual something is the more universal it can be. As an artist, you have to focus an experience and express. With acting you're working on a character but just on the outside. In art you're inside yourself.
In previous years, you’ve used the proceeds from your exhibitions to support the charity UNICEF. Is this a cause close to your heart?
UNICEF is close to my heart and a very important. After this I shall be going to Beirut to address the crisis in Lebanon and any funding is critical. Proceeds from any art I sell goes to charity.
What is next for Lucy Liu, the artist?
I'm working a series of unique books using found objects, which will create a visual narrative to be shown next year in Paris.
Totem is at The Popular Institute, Manchester, until June 22nd 2013.
Text by Siobhan Andrews
