CV & contact
Clare Chun-yu Liu 劉純聿 is a UK-based Taiwanese artist and researcher. Clare is interested in reviewing history from multiple perspectives. She explores oral history and lived experience in the form of fiction and nonfiction to challenge the grand narratives. Also intrinsic to Clare’s practice is her experimentation with the textual and visual, narrative writing and filmmaking, theory and practice.
Informed by her familial background of coming from China and Indonesia, Clare is interested in the Chinese diaspora and the fluidity of identity. Her earlier works analyse the relationship between personal and national history, life as a construction of historical events and ultimately how individuals live a life in a time of social and political turbulence.
Since her now completed practice-based fine art doctoral research, Clare has been reinterpreting chinoiserie from a postcolonial and diasporic Chinese perspective. She argues for notional ethnography, a postcolonial strategy of fictional interlocution that generates new historiographies. Through the methodology, historical individuals from China, Taiwan and Europe are cast as film characters and elaborate their views on the chinoiserie artefacts within sight. Such new narratives are fictional by nature but are informed by historical research of the characters’ lived experience.
Email: clareliu.uk@gmail.com
Instagram: @clarechunyuliu
Education
2023
PhD Practice-based Fine Art [Vice-Chancellor Scholarship]
Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Thesis: Reinterpreting English Chinoiserie from a Postcolonial and Personal/Taiwanese Perspective: Creating New Narratives through Art Practice
2015
MFA Fine Art
Wimbledon College of Arts, University of the Arts London, UK
2012
MA Art and Design Studio Practice [Departmental Scholarship]
Loughborough University, UK
2010
BA English Literature
Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan
Network Affiliations
British Art Network, London, UK
Early Career Researchers Network, Paul Mellon Centre, London, UK
Associate Fellowship with Higher Education Academy, UK
Academic Experience
2024-2025
Research Fellow, Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany
2023-2024
Lecturer, BA Fine Art, University of Bolton, UK
2020
Visiting Lecturer, BA Media Production, Coventry University, UK
2019
Visiting Lecturer, BA Film Production, Regent's University, UK
2018-2019
Associate Lecturer, Contextualising Practice, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Presented Conference Papers
2024
Chinoiserie and Diasporic Identity, Global Taiwan Symposium, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan [invited speaker]
Notional Ethnography: Creating Postcolonial Historiographies from the Contemporary Time, Art of History Conference, University of Nottingham, UK
2023
I Drank the Moon's Reflection, ECRN Introduction + work in progress, Paul Mellon Centre/online
Reinterpreting English Chinoiserie from a Postcolonial Perspective through Fiction Filmmaking, Paul Mellon Centre Summer Symposium, London, UK
2020
Contesting Historiography of Cultural Heritage Sites, Association of Critical Heritage Studies Biennial Conference, University College London/online
Opening up Spaces: Heterotopia as a Postcolonial Strategy, Winter Symposium, Nordic Summer University at Wrocław University, Poland
2019
Challenges and Experiences in Reinterpreting Cultural Heritage Sites, Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience, Newcastle University, UK
2018
Self-representation in Chinoiserie: an Investigation, Decolonising the Self: Representations of the Self in Art Theory and Practice across Culture, SOAS, London, UK
‘Here'...'There' / East and Southeast Asia Diasporic Act, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK [a collaboration between Central Saint Martins and Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University] [invited speaker]
2016/7
The Nationalists' Relocation to Taiwan: Staying, Going and Diaspora
• International History of East Asia Seminar, China Centre, University of Oxford, UK
• Engagement and Identity, American Association of Chinese Studies Conference, Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, USA
• Joint East Asian Studies Conference, SOAS, University of London, UK
2016
Chinese Diaspora, Oral History and Video Art, Routes of Difference: Migration in Artistic, Academic and Media Discourses, Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal
Talks
2024
Whose Histories: Artist Talk, Museum of the Home, London, UK
Artist Talk and Reading Workshop, esea contemporary, Manchester, UK
Bunker Talk, Manchester School of Art, UK
2023
Chai Shai: Asian British Art, Slade School of Fine Art/online
Roundtable Discussion Asia Art Activism, esea contemporary, Manchester, UK
2022
East and Southeast Asian Artists Northwest Roundtable, online
Professional Experience
2023
Peer Reviewer, Journal for Artistic Research
2019 – 2022
Professional Mentor, Professional Mentoring Scheme, University of the Arts London, UK
2020
Conference Responder, Call and Response - Research Student Presentations, RCA, Greenwich University and the NAFAE network, online
2019
Panel Chair, Interdisciplinary Imaginations, Critical Confrontations: New Voices in Postcolonial Studies Symposium, University of Leeds, UK
2018
Panel Chair, Creative Images Conference, University of Manchester, UK
Organising Committee, Postgraduate Arts & Humanities Centre Symposium, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Panel Chair, Manchester Metropolitan Postgraduate Research Conference, UK
Grants and Scholarships
2022
PAHC Research Degree Fund, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
2020
Research Support Award, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
PAHC Research Degree Fund, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
2019
PAHC Research Degree Fund, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Conference Fund, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
2018
PAHC Research Degree Fund, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
2017
Vice-Chancellor PhD Scholarship, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
2016
Junior Scholar Travel Grant, American Association of Chinese Studies, USA
2012
Departmental Scholarship, School of the Arts, Loughborough University, UK
Awards, Residencies and Seminars
2024
The Gathering, iniva, London, UK
Artist residency, Nida Art Colony, Lithuania
2019
Interdisciplinary Autumn School - Asia and Europe: Discourse, Circulation and Representation, Asien-Orient-Institut, Zürich University, Zürich, Switzerland
Summer Academy, Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen, Norway
2018
Visual Research Network Residency, Yorkshire, UK
Artistic Research Will Eat Itself Research Workshop, Plymouth, UK
2016
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London, UK – shortlisted
Oberhausen Film Festival Seminar, Oberhausen, Germany
2015
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London, UK – shortlisted
Selected Screenings and Exhibitions
2024
Clare Chun-yu Liu: Screening and Talk, Nida Art Colony, Lithuania
An Inverted Journey of Counter Archiving, esea contemporary, Manchester, UK
Between the Personal and Historical: the Chinese Diaspora, Chinoiserie and Photography, Bloc Projects, Sheffield, UK
Video Academy/Videoformes, Clermont-Ferrand, France
2023
UAL AoCA Talent on Film Screening, Wellcome Collection, London, UK
This is China of a Particular Sort, I Do Not Know, Asymmetry Foundation, London, UK
Bogotá Experimental Film Festival, Colombia
Asia Pacific Film Festival, the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
2022
Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Germany
New Art Exchange Open, Notthingham, UK
Clare Chun-yu Liu Artist Films Screening, de Art Center, Guangzhou, China
2021
Istanbul Experimental Film Festival, Turkey
Busan International Video Art Festival, South Korea
SMIF: Asian Film and Festival in Spain, online
EX-iS, Seoul, South Korea
Image Forum Festival, Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya, Japan
Experimental Forum, USA [Honourable mention]
2020
BIDEODROMO International Experimental Film and Video Festival, Bilbao, Spain
2019
DOBRA Festival Internacional de Cinema Experimental, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Filmfest Bremen, Germany
Leiden Short Film Festival, the Netherlands
2018
Constellations: Screenings from the ‘Archive’ and Beyond, Asia-Art-Activism Research Network, Raven Row, London, UK
The Research Stomach, KARST, Plymouth, UK
2017
Minikino Film Week/International Short Film Festival Bali, Indonesia
Migration Film Festival, The Front, New Orleans, USA
Closing the Distance, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne, Australia
OverFlow, Performance Studies International Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2016
Routes of Difference – Migration in Artistic, Academic and Media Discourses, Goethe Institut, Lisbon, Portugal
Both Sides Now III: Final Frontiers, British Council Hong Kong, China; Boom Art Gallery Bar, Hong Kong, China; Oi!, Hong Kong, China; Fabrica, Brighton, UK; Exeter Phoenix, UK; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK; Phoenix Leicester, UK; Taipei International Video Art Exhibition, Taiwan; Song Eun ArtSpace Seoul, South Korea; Ray Art Center Shanghai, China; Minsheng Art Museum Beijing, China; VAFA International Video Festival, Macau, China
Artist Video Screenings, Charing Cross Library, London, UK
2015
Art Parlour: On Tour, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK
Chelsea Salon, Penarth Studios, London, UK
2014
UK Young Artist Leicester Festival, Leicester, UK
Publications
2024
[printed book] Chai Shai: British Asian Art, British Art Network
[online article] The curious question of Chineseness: the Royal Pavilion Brighton, British Art Uncanon, British Art Network
2017
[exhibition catalogue] Closing the Distance, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne, Australia
Interviews
2022
Images Forum Festival, Japan
2016
Artist Liu Chun-yu Liu Explores Chinese Diaspora, China Information Center
2015
Chun-yu Liu, Stigmart VideoFocus Special Issue NKT
Collection
VIDEOTAGE Media Art Collection, Hong Kong, China