Sensation 感知

(2022- Ongoing)






Inspired by ancient Roman anatomical votive statues and deeply affected by pandemic-related restrictions, Liao Wen furthers her longtime exploration of the body as an object, and the pain and violence inflicted on it, which was first materialized in her earliest experimental sculptural series, "The Flesh Store" (2018-2020): Lucid awareness of the body is often a result of physiological stimulation or injury. In the absence of pain and suppression, how do we perceive the body's presence in everyday life?

In the "Sensation" series, Liao Wen materializes easily neglected bodily activities such as breathing, excretion, and vomiting through her poetic sculptural language. Compared to the straightforward representation of the body in pain in "The Flesh Store", the "Sensation" series is airy and humorous. These works evoke Marcel Duchamp's mental game in Why Not Sneeze Rose Sélavy? (1921): bodily perception, objects, and words interact to create an intricate synesthetic experience.

In Throw up (2023), the metal ring tightens around the torso like a waistband, seemingly squeezing the intracorporal substance upward. Liao Wen deftly uses epoxy resin and jesmonite to represent the textual nuances of the substance. The steel wire stretched at the top suggests the futility of suppressing vomiting. Swallow (2023) captures the motion of swallowing out of thirst. The acid lemony yellow stimulates salivary secretion through a synesthetic reaction, while the curled "tongue" and wrinkled "throat" vividly induce the sensation of thirst and the act of swallowing. Just as “the answer to the question ‘Why not sneeze?’ is simply that you can't sneeze at will”, Liao Wen’s depiction of involuntary physiological instincts strips the human body down to its essence – the origin of perception.

受古罗马还愿塑像的启发,也深受漫长瘟疫阴霾的抑制,廖雯在这一系列中延续和深入了最早期的实验性系列雕塑《肉铺》(2018-2020)中对于人体作为“物”所可能承受的痛苦和暴力的思考:人往往在受到生理刺激和伤害后,才会强烈地体悟到身体的在场。那么当痛苦和抑制暂缓,我们如何去感知日常身体的在场?

在《感知》系列雕塑中,廖雯用诗意的雕塑语言将呼吸、排泄、呕吐等易被忽视的身体基本活动具像化。相较于《肉铺》中对疼痛肉体的直白展露,《感知》系列是轻松幽默的。这些作品让人想起马歇尔·杜尚在《Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?》(1921)中进行的游戏:身体知觉、物体和词句在作品中汇聚并发生了微妙的通感反应。在《呕吐》(2023)中,金属圆环如腰带般勒紧躯干,仿佛将体内物质向上挤压。廖雯细腻地使用环氧树脂和水磨石呈现了呕吐物的差别。顶部勒紧的钢丝,则暗示了抑制呕吐的徒劳。《吞咽》(2023)表现了因口渴而吞咽唾液的瞬间。醒目的明亮柠檬黄以联觉的方式刺激唾液的分泌,蜷曲的“舌头”和带有褶皱的“喉部”则生动地唤起口渴的感知和吞咽的动作。正如打喷嚏的行为不受人的意愿支配,廖雯所关注的人体自发的本能反应将身体回归至其最原始而本质的属性,即感知的生发处。


























Resist Meaninglessness with Friction (Chewing on an Ulcer) 用摩擦力抵抗无意义(咀嚼溃疡), 2023
hand-colore d limewood, silicone, stainless steel, linear optical axis
手工上色椴木、硅胶、不锈钢、直线光轴
Main Body主体: 32 x 36 x 75 cm;
Base 底座: 102.5 x 66.5 x 46.5 cm;
Total 总体: 134.5 x 75 x 46 cm






Inhaling 深吸, 2023

hand-colored limewood, epoxy resin
手工上色椴木、环氧树脂
58 x 32 x 18 cm



Swallow 吞咽, 2023
hand-colored limewood, epoxy resin
手工上色椴木、环氧树脂
55 x 18 x 18 cm
21 1/2 x 7 x 7 in


Call of nature 本性的邀约, 2023
hand-colored limewood, epoxy resin, stainless steel, coil spring
手工 上色椴木、环氧树脂、不锈钢、弹簧
60 x 34 x 22 cm
23 1/2 x 13 1/2 x 8 1/2 in





Throw up 呕吐, 2023
hand-colored limewood, epoxy resin, jesmonite, stainless steel, steel wire
手工上色椴木、环氧树脂、树脂石膏、不锈钢、钢丝
48 x 32.5 x 16 cm
19 x 13 x 6 1/2 in










Itch, 2023
hand-colored limewood, stainless steel, spring, yellow crystal, feather
手工上色椴木、不锈钢弹簧、黄水晶、羽毛
33 x 38 x 9 cm





Squeeze, 2023
hand-colored limewood, stainless steel
手工上色椴木、不锈钢
68 x 25 x 15 cm
23 x 12 1/2 x 7 in