Pi-Ling Liu Solo Exhibition: The Circle of Time — Glimpsing the Cyclical Echoes of Time and Life through Eternal Images
This December, Hanguangxing Photography Studio will close out its 2024 exhibition season with its grand finale: The Circle of Time, a solo exhibition by co-founder Pi-Ling Liu. Centered around the core theme of "the overlapping and cyclical nature of time," this exhibition traces the subtle connections between memory, nature, and humanity through the power of imagery.
The Circle of Time serves as a microcosm of Pi-Ling Liu’s photographic journey, bringing together years of work that spans from the islands of Taiwan to the glaciers of the Arctic and Antarctic. With a gentle perspective and profound emotion, she constructs poetic frames of coexistence and continuity. Each moment is both a convergence of memory and a retrospective gaze into the fragments of time. The exhibition invites audiences to re-examine the intersections of past and future, and to feel the fluid motion of time alongside the resilience of life.
From Travel Logs to Artistic Exploration: A Photographic Journey
Pi-Ling Liu’s connection with photography began quietly during her youth, sparked by one journey after another. In those days, she routinely carried a small camera wherever she traveled, documenting the fleeting landscapes along the way. Following her retirement, she sought to use her lens to explore more facets of the world. This endless curiosity has driven her to photograph places often overlooked in daily life, transforming them into layers of fluid emotion and narrative within her frames. Over time, these images became her creative repository, reflecting her personal sentiments and contemplations.
Yet, this transformation did not happen overnight. "It took me many years to gradually shift my perspective and approach to shooting," she shares. By infusing her photography with her past experience in oil painting, she has successfully expanded and enriched her visual vocabulary.
Photography has carried Pi-Ling Liu to every corner of the world, pushing her life onto a completely different trajectory. The establishment of Hanguangxing Photography Studio, however, marked an even more profound turning point. "It was a brand-new beginning, granting me the opportunity to extend my passion for photography both wider and deeper," she reflects. Together with her partners at Hanguangxing, she integrated the ancient technique of platinum printing into her creative practice, allowing the imagery to immerse itself in a deep dialogue between time and material texture.
"The process of this technique is incredibly complex; before it is fully completed, you never truly know what the final piece will look like." Recalling those long hours of waiting and meticulous polishing, the scenes slowly resurface, laden with unpredictable surprises and challenges. "If even the slightest flaw appears during the process—even just a tiny black speck—the entire work could be ruined." Every moment of completion became the ultimate intersection of anticipation and pressure.
The Continuation of a Temporal Journey
For Pi-Ling Liu, this exhibition represents a psychological journey of both looking back and moving forward. "I began preparing for this over a year ago. Initially, my plan was simply to publish a photobook titled The Path of Immersion as a small gift to myself. From the content of that book, this exhibition gradually evolved."
Reflecting on her creative journey of over a decade, meeting master photographer Min-Hsiung Tseng became the defining turning point of her photographic career. From technical skills to artistic philosophy, Master Tseng’s inspiration revealed the multifaceted possibilities of imagery. He also guided her through the conceptual pre-production stage of the exhibition, helping her clarify her thoughts—weaving what seemed like scattered images into a cohesive thread bound by the connection between time and life. "I realized that all these works share a profound connection with the cycles of time and life," she notes. From these links, she traced a main narrative arc titled "The River of Life," connecting the dots of her creative context over the years. "How did this inner journey unfold? Why present these specific elements?" Such questions became a recurring process of self-interrogation and refinement.
Ultimately, with the curatorial guidance and planning of Chun-Yi Hsu, The Circle of Time gradually came into focus and took shape, transforming into a cyclical journey of temporal flow, memory, and life.
The Circle of Time: Gazing into the Cycles of Life and the World
The exhibition brings together Pi-Ling Liu’s works from her years of traveling the globe—spanning from the island topography of Taiwan to the glacial landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctic, and ranging from documenting the evolution of species and rock strata to exploring the symbiosis between man-made objects and nature. Breaking free from the frameworks of geography and chronology, these images act like a Möbius strip, where disparate facets converge to form a deeply interconnected and endlessly cyclical journey of vision and thought.
"Good things and bad things actually coexist," Liu says, describing her understanding of life. She believes that time does not flow in a linear fashion, but rather exists as an overlapping and cyclical entity. "The river of my life is built within such a circle of time." The exhibition space is organized around six major thematic axes: Melting Statues, Archipelagos, Textures of Time, The Path of Immersion, The Movement of Life, and Coexistence and Interdependence. Each theme carries her distinct contemplations on time and existence, guiding viewers to traverse between the metaphors of imagery and the essence of reality.
The exhibition's key visual features a drone photograph of Penghu's island reefs, serving as a vital symbol that echoes the central theme. She explains that this piece merges a threefold meaning: first, it is crafted using platinum printing, imparting a classic and eternal texture to the image; second, the drone's perspective represents the intervention of contemporary technology, expanding the possibilities of photography; and finally, the reef topography and tidal cycles of Penghu present a microcosm of the fluid motion of time and the continuity of life.
"We meet here, where the past is the future, and the future embraces the past." This slogan from Pi-Ling Liu’s personal website encapsulates her interpretation of time. To her, time is not a linearly extending sequence of past, present, and future, but rather an interconnected, interwoven whole. She infuses this philosophical reflection into her creative practice, deploying modern technology while simultaneously utilizing classical craftsmanship to unfold the texture of time. To sustain this handcrafted quality, she specially sourced paper from a 400-year-old artisanal paper mill in Italy for the exhibition's invitation cards and handmade books. "When people receive these papers, I hope they can feel the warmth of handcraft and the traces of time."
"Many beautiful things spark into existence precisely because of coexistence." Liu's work gazes at the continuity of life and the transition of years, capturing the interdependence and symbiosis between nature and humanity. By transforming the frames into a tangible expression of time, she weaves her deep care for the world and the land into both the imagery and the paper, making this exhibition a catalyst for stirring the emotions within our hearts. It guides us to glimpse the resilience and power of life within the circle of time.
From December 7, 2024, to January 19, 2025, you are cordially invited to step into Pi-Ling Liu’s The Circle of Time.
Photographer: Pi-Ling Liu
The Circle of Time Exhibition Dates: December 7, 2024 – January 19, 2025 (Fri–Sun only, 14:00–19:00)
Opening Event: Opening Reception & Book Launch | December 7, 2024, 14:00–19:00
Venue: Hanguangxing WhiteCrow78 (No. 8, Lane 13, Lishui St., Da’an District, Taipei City)
Curator: Chun-Yi Hsu
Exhibition Details: View More
