evelynclliao
ArtEvol 2025 / Evelyn Liao
What We Held Above the Water , 2025 Colour print: 40 × 40 cm Cyanotype print: 40 × 40 cm Negative on transparency film: 42 × 59.4 cm Colour photo on a sheer fabric: 155 × 103 cm
Evelyn Liao is a Taiwan-born photographer based in the United Kingdom. Liao grew up in Taipei and moved to Leeds in 2019, where she completed a Master’s degree in Applied Translation Studies. With a background in working with words, Liao turned to images during the pandemic after receiving a film camera from her mother, which initiated an analogue practice. Early work in street photography captured the outward flow of city life, while more recent projects focus inward, tracing narratives of belonging, resilience and love. Liao’s photographs dwell on quiet and often overlooked moments of daily life, holding them with the same attentiveness once reserved for language.
Artwork Introduction
What We Held Above the Water was created during a period of upheaval. When Evelyn Liao lost her work visa, she also lost her home, daily routines, a sense of stability and a part of her identity in the UK. Life and future with partner Paola became undefined. The move to the Italian coast was for survival, a way to stay together and prevent life from breaking apart. Making images became a means to endure and create beauty from pain. Carrying a bouquet into the sea became the anchor for a series of stories. The flowers, fading yet alive, placed in water, became fragile and resilient, a metaphor for that moment. The photographs record attempts to stay afloat and preserve love amid uncertainty: colour film for what was immediate and raw; cyanotype for what was heavy and fading; a negative suspended like something half-vanished; sheer fabric for what was settling and shifting. These materials reflect how each memory is held differently, marking distinct stages of vulnerability. They show how love can remain steady, and how art becomes a vessel for survival.
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