© 2024 C. Liu
Clare Chun-yu Liu 劉純聿 is a UK-based Taiwanese artist, researcher and lecturer. Clare is interested in reviewing history in relation to diasporic experience and postcolonial thinking. 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.
Funded by the Vice-Chancellor Scholarship at Manchester School of Art, her recently completed practice-based fine art doctoral research reinterprets English chinoiserie from a postcolonial and personal/Taiwanese perspective. She argues for notional ethnography, a postcolonial strategy of fictional interlocution that generates new historiographies. Through the methodology, historical individuals are cast as film characters and discuss, argue with and question each other about the chinoiserie artefacts within sight in the artist films.
Based on her familial background, Clare has also been exploring the Chinese diaspora and working with the personal stories of diasporic individuals. Her work analyses 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.
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 title: Reinterpreting English Chinoiserie from a Postcolonial and Personal/Taiwanese Perspective: Creating New Narratives through Art Practice [download link]
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
Research Fellowship
2024/25 Research Fellowship, Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany
Network Affiliations
British Art Network [link]
Early Career Researchers Network, Paul Mellon Centre/Yale University, London
Associate Fellowship with Higher Education Academy, UK
Lecturing
2023-
Lecturer in 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
2018-9
Associate Lecturer, Manchester School of art, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Presented Conference Papers
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
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 Cultures, SOAS, University of 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 Institut at New York University] [along with a student crit with BA Fine Art students from across UAL]
2016/7
The Nationalists' relocation to Taiwan: staying, going and diaspora
• International History of East Asia Seminar, China Centre, University of Oxford, UK [along with screening of A love story: between the strait and A complete story: between the strait]
• Engagement and Identity, American Association of Chinese Studies Conference, Pepperdine University, California, 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
Bunker Talk, Manchester School of Art, UK [recording]
2023
Roundtable discussion, Chai Shai: Asian British Art, Slade School of Fine Art/online
Roundtable Discussion Asia Art Activism, esea contemporary, Manchester, UK
Asia Pacific Film Festival, the University of Central Lancashire, UK
2022
East South East Asian Artists Northwest Roundtable, UK
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, virtually/UK
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/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 and Residencies
2019
Interdisciplinary Autumn School - Asia and Europe: Discourse, Circulation and Representation, Asien-Orient-Institut, Zürich University, Switzerland
Summer Academy Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen, Norway
2018
Visual Research Network Residency, UK
Artistic Research Will Eat Itself Research Workshop, Plymouth, UK
2016
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London, UK – shortlisted
Oberhausen Film Festival Seminar, Germany
2015
neo:artprize, Bolton, UK – finalist
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London, UK – shortlisted
Selected Screenings and Exhibitions
2024
Video Academy/Videoformes, Clermont-Ferrand, France
2023
UAL AoCA Talent on Film Screening, Wellcome Collection, London, UK
Asymmetry Foundation, London
Bogotá Experimental Film Festival, Bogotá, Colombia
Asia Pacific Film Festival, the University of Central Lancashire, UK
2022
Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Kassel, 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, on-line
EX-iS, Experimental Film and Video Festival in 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, Bremen, Germany
Leiden Short Film Festival, Leiden, 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, 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
Neo: artprize 2015, neo: gallery, Bolton, UK
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, UK
When Arts Meet, Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, Hong Kong, China
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