Visual artist Pixy Liao, born in Shanghai and now living in Brooklyn, has been making fun of men and women’s traditional roles in Asian society and families with her unique lens language, exploring the two sexes’ chemical reactions intimate relationships. In 2005, she went to the United States to study photography and met her boyfriend Moro, a Japanese five years younger. They began to communicate, live and create together in a wonderful way.

In her photographs, Moro is often naked or dressed in simple clothes, showing his pitiful vulnerability. For example, in her “experimental relationship” series: “homemade sushi,” Moro is like a piece of raw fish, passively sandwiched between folded sheets and fixed by seaweed-like materials. The soft pink, white and gray background shows a trace of helpless confusion.

In “hang in there,” Moro seems to be a piece of pixy’s clothes, hanging on the shelf of the laundry room at will. In “we are connected,” two people stand hand in hand and look directly at the audience. It seems that this sums up a typical relationship, where the power of love brings them together. But if you look closely, you’ll notice that the thin red line between the two is actually a straw, leading blood from Moro’s chest to pixy’s mouth, arms, torso, and crotch – just like a vampire. But Moro doesn’t seem to care or even enjoy the relationship.

Although these works seem to stand under a strong feminist framework, pixy does not actually consider herself a feminist. She thinks that people need to fight for their own rights and opportunities, which is not simply to say that men and women should be equal in all things. Pixy is not against feminism but the inherent concepts imposed on women. Therefore, what she and Moro show in their interaction is strength and control, but more love and hate, silent desire, and constant attempts to understand each other.