Xinyue Liu
Xinyue Liu (刘新悦) is an interdisciplinary artist and Clarendon researcher in fine art. She works with film, text, movement, and installation.
In the face of ecological devastation, how can the medium of film find grief’s place in our society? Xinyue’s doctoral thesis posits the ‘cinema of ecological grief’ as a distinct visual genre. In understanding this filmic endeavour as an attempt to carry ecological grief through the work of mourning, Liu’s art and criticism span the disciplines of visual anthropology, environmental humanities, contemporary visual art studies, and ethics.
Liu’s research engages with Judith Butler’s concept of ‘ungrievable subject’, the lives deemed unworthy of public grieving as a result of socio-political callousness, to examine grief as a complex order capable of blurring the boundary between individuals and species. She often takes a collaborative and intersectional approach to engage with historically oppressed perspectives.
Works by Liu have been exhibited at the Polygon Gallery, VIFF (XINEMA), and the Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival. Her ongoing collaborative project investigates the critical state of coral reefs and has travelled to the USA and Taiwan. An editor for Art Review Oxford, her writing has been featured in Visual Anthropology Review, Anthroposphere and e-flux.
Liu holds a BFA in Radio and Television Production from Jilin University and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Simon Fraser University.
