PALIMPSEST: WOMEN, TEXT, AND THE ACT OF SELF-INSCRIPTION
Artist & Works

Xi Liang


Thea is a visual artist whose practice explores the intersection of body, memory, and political history. With a background in spatial and visual design, her work investigates how power and social structures leave invisible imprints on individual bodies


Grandmother's two belly buttons(2020)


Ink /Rice paper/Photo Matt Fibre

This work come from my grandma body. She was first women under China One-Child Policy, who take surgery for sterilization. In that time, woman body not belong to self, but belong to nation plan. I use rubbing, make her belly print become like word on paper. It is like mark, also silent witness.

The title “Two Navels” not natural body, but scar from operation. It let me think about policy and family, history and personal life. Art is my language, I use body to write social and political story. It remind us, memory and wound is not only private, but also collective.