Yaya Yajie Liang’s work explores metamorphosis of the body. Liang looks at the potential of ‘becoming animal’; from the legendary banished beast to the interpenetration of biological space. Liang interrogates how analogic mapping to and from animals within imagined, lived, or taxonomic intimacies helps us to reconsider the prescribed definition of ‘humanity’. Liang views painting as movement that is constantly repeating the ‘becoming’. Shifting restlessly between abstract and figurative modes, she uses an intuitive approach to kick-start new paintings, allowing unplanned initial strokes to help dictate the works’ subsequent direction.

Reflecting on the limitations that the contemporary urban society imposes on our very nature, through ‘The Shadow Play’ Liang explores the effects of spatial confinement on the human body, our behaviour and our relationship with each other. The boundaries between the setting and the subject are blurred and entangled. The anthropomorphic creature inhabits the canvas, occupying the majority of the pictorial surface. It is restrained, held captive in what looks like a domestic space; its body is fractured and recomposed, with human feet that are rooted to the spot and a set of wings that signify the desire to fly and break free. Liang prompts us to emphasise with such a creature, reconsidering our own role and state as human beings in an urban and ever-evolving society.