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Jia Liu
Mixed-Media Projects
Dialogue With the Unknown 《与未知对话》
Dialogue with the Unknown is a spatial installation work about fictional characters I invented. It includes two parts: Dialogue and Ladder. The creation of these unknown characters is based on the combination of semiotics and metaphysics, and the appearance of the text refers to symbols, oracle bones, and different language genres (Chinese, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Latin). The characters seem to come from an undiscovered and unknown civilization, but at the same time, they are born out of things and languages we already know.
This beautiful paradox lies in the mystery of an imaginary world expressed through fictional text — a mystery that arouses fantasy. However, the source of the illusion remains unknown. Obviously, these fictional words were not invented for linguistic communication. They are unreadable and incomprehensible. Nevertheless, I am convinced that words are powerful. Through visual communication, imagination, and perception, we can still connect and communicate with the characters — mentally and spiritually.
《与未知的对话》 是一件关于我所创造的虚构文字的空间装置作品，由两个部分构成：“对话”与“阶梯”。这些未知文字的生成，源自符号学与形而上学的交汇，其形式融合了甲骨文、象征符号及多种语言体系（包括中文、埃及象形文和拉丁文）的书写风格。它们仿佛来自某个尚未被发现的文明，一个遥远而神秘的文化体系。然而，这些文字的根基又扎根于我们熟悉的语言与文化符码之中。
正是在这种“似曾相识”与“完全陌生”之间的张力中，一种美丽的悖论诞生了：它是对一个想象世界的隐秘描绘，一个借由虚构书写展开的神秘空间。而这种神秘，不仅激发幻想，也指向一个连幻觉本身都无法触及的未知源头。
这些文字显然并非为了日常语言交流而创造。它们无法被阅读，也无法被释义。但我始终相信，文字自身蕴含着超越意义的力量。透过视觉直觉、象征感知与精神投射，我们仍能与这些“无可言说”的文字建立非语言的联系——一种发生在意识深层的交流，它跨越语法与逻辑，直抵感知与灵魂的维度。
This beautiful paradox lies in the mystery of an imaginary world expressed through fictional text — a mystery that arouses fantasy. However, the source of the illusion remains unknown. Obviously, these fictional words were not invented for linguistic communication. They are unreadable and incomprehensible. Nevertheless, I am convinced that words are powerful. Through visual communication, imagination, and perception, we can still connect and communicate with the characters — mentally and spiritually.
《与未知的对话》 是一件关于我所创造的虚构文字的空间装置作品，由两个部分构成：“对话”与“阶梯”。这些未知文字的生成，源自符号学与形而上学的交汇，其形式融合了甲骨文、象征符号及多种语言体系（包括中文、埃及象形文和拉丁文）的书写风格。它们仿佛来自某个尚未被发现的文明，一个遥远而神秘的文化体系。然而，这些文字的根基又扎根于我们熟悉的语言与文化符码之中。
正是在这种“似曾相识”与“完全陌生”之间的张力中，一种美丽的悖论诞生了：它是对一个想象世界的隐秘描绘，一个借由虚构书写展开的神秘空间。而这种神秘，不仅激发幻想，也指向一个连幻觉本身都无法触及的未知源头。
这些文字显然并非为了日常语言交流而创造。它们无法被阅读，也无法被释义。但我始终相信，文字自身蕴含着超越意义的力量。透过视觉直觉、象征感知与精神投射，我们仍能与这些“无可言说”的文字建立非语言的联系——一种发生在意识深层的交流，它跨越语法与逻辑，直抵感知与灵魂的维度。
Metamorphosis 《变形》
Metamorphosis is a hand-bound book that seeks to explore the aesthetic dialogue between philosophical language and visual language. The images within are derived from a series of microscope photographs I took—close-up views of ancient beads captured through a 60x magnifying lens. The accompanying texts are selected from my own short poems. These images reveal the hidden beauty of the microscopic world, while the book’s visual composition itself meditates on the act of seeing, and the imaginative potential embedded in perception.
Throughout the reading experience, viewers are invited to freely interpret the interplay between images and poetry, without being informed of the images’ origins. Only on the final page is the origin of the images revealed. In the space between the familiar and the unfamiliar, a quiet paradox appears — a world created through imagination and perception.
Throughout the reading experience, viewers are invited to freely interpret the interplay between images and poetry, without being informed of the images’ origins. Only on the final page is the origin of the images revealed. In the space between the familiar and the unfamiliar, a quiet paradox appears — a world created through imagination and perception.
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