Through the history of Western art, the heterosexual dynamic has shaped the notions of artist and muse: the male as creator, sublimating his sexual prowess to make art; the female as muse, the passive object of inspiration. The notion of a muse comes from the ancient Greeks, who cast nine goddesses as the source of inspiration for men to pen poetry, hymns, music and song, dance, comedy, tragedy, history, and astronomy — decidedly more “feminine” disciplines, as opposed to science, math, and philosophy.
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Some 3.000 years later, the paradigm is as patriarchal as it is démodé — and now brilliantly challenged by Chinese photographer Pixy Liao in “Your Gaze Belongs to Me“, her first museum exhibition, curated by Holly Roussel. Hailing from Shanghai, Liao recalls being raised with traditional gender roles hailing from Confucian times that very much mirror that of ancient Greece.
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“As a woman brought up in China, I used to think I could only love someone who is older and more mature than me, who can be my protector and mentor,” Liao toldLenscratch. “Then I met my current boyfriend, Moro, who is 5 years younger than me, I felt that whole concept of relationships changed, all the way around. I became the person who has more authority and power. One of my male friends even questioned how I could choose a boyfriend the way a man would choose a girlfriend. And I thought, ‘Damn right. That’s exactly what I’m doing, and why not!’”
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