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Photo: M+, Hong Kong
Annessa Chan:
When we tell stories about artists throughout history, we often talk about the relationship between male artists and their female muses. This was certainly the case for Picasso, whose relationships with women contributed much to his art. But of course, there is more to the story. The women who inspired Picasso, for example, were overshadowed by his fame and often suffered from his rage and abuse.
The photographer Pixy Liao questions this traditional perception of gender dynamics in art by flipping the roles. The woman we see here is the artist herself, and the man is Moro, her partner and collaborator. Moro is five years younger than her. Growing up in China, Liao always believed that her future partner had to be older, someone who would be her mentor. But her relationship with Moro, who is from Japan, completely changed her perspective. She began to rethink gender stereotypes and explore these dynamics through photography. Liao is the one to pose her model, Moro, and compose the final works. In the photos, she might ask Moro to wear a woman’s dress or adopt a submissive pose. Her images subvert historical male-female power dynamics, but in an intimate and playful way.
NARRATOR:
There are six photographs by Pixy Liao in the 2025 exhibition The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Picasso for Asia–A Conversation. Made between 2010 and 2018, these colour photographs vary in orientation and size. The largest measures approximately 127 centimetres in height and ninety-five centimetres in width, while the smallest is about thirty-eight centimetres in height and fifty centimetres in width.
All six photographs depict a man and a woman together as a pair or as individual subjects. The couple is the artist herself and Moro, her younger partner and collaborator, both of medium build. The artist has a bob haircut, neatly cropped to ear level, with straight bangs, and her nails are painted red. Moro’s hair varies in length. At times, he appears with a buzzcut, while at other times, it is longer, ending just above the ears. In each photograph, they appear in different poses and attires in either indoor or outdoor environments. Some of the photographs are full-body images, while others are close-up shots. The couple is either fully dressed or in form-fitting underwear. Let’s describe two of the photographs in more detail:
Golden Mouse is a colour photograph in landscape orientation created by Pixy Liao in 2014, measuring seventy-five centimetres in height and 100 centimetres in width. The work is a close-up shot of a gold computer mouse set against a black surface. Two right hands, one resting atop the other, are placed on the mouse. The hand on top, likely belonging to a woman, has nails painted with fiery red polish and appears soft and delicate. The other hand beneath is larger, with short nails and no polish, suggesting its owner is a man. The backs of both hands face up, with fingers pointing to the left. Underneath the man’s hand lies a gold mouse with a mirror finish, reflecting the image of Liao. The hand with red nails stands out against the black backdrop and creates the impression that the woman’s hand is controlling the man’s hand to operate the golden mouse.
Mind-control is a woman’s essential skill is a colour photograph in portrait orientation, created by Pixy Liao in 2010. The work measures 127 centimetres in height and approximately ninety-five centimetres in width, making it the largest of the six exhibited works. The image features a man with a buzzcut looking downward, his head covered by a pair of outstretched hands with bright red nails. The man is Moro. Moro wears a white T-shirt with purple accents, visible only from the chest up. Behind him, another person is partially depicted from shoulder to waist, their hands spread wide like claws clamping the man’s head, as if manipulating his thoughts.