Open Plane by Liu Liling invites a quiet attentiveness to light, shadow and movement as they unfold across this space. Through processes of photographing, layering and printing, lines and forms converge to create illusionistic spaces in shifting hues of blue, grey and black. Open and porous, this installation encourages a slower gaze, one that embraces subtle shifts, the passing of light, and the presence of space. The works in this exhibition are contemplations on how time lingers and leaves traces, shaping what—and how—we see.

In Conversation with the Artist

In this interview, Ge Xiaocong, Visual Arts Programmer at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, sits down with artist Liu Liling in conversation about Open Plane, her new exhibition at Esplanade Mall Level 3 Community Wall.

Ge Xiaocong (GX): Your current body of work features a distinct visual vocabulary that feels both personal and deeply considered. Could you share some of the inspirations or personal stories that have shaped your artistic journey and led you to this point?

Liu Liling (LL): One of the guiding ideas in my practice is the concept of ‘duration’. Coming from a background in painting, I often think of the surface of a photograph not as a fixed image, but as something more fluid and in-progress—built through layering, repeating, and even erasing. In departing from conventional ways of printing and viewing photographs, I begin to focus more on colour, edges, detail, and depth.

Creating an image is a process shaped by observation, past experiences, and experimentation, not something that begins from a fixed point. I’m always looking for the work’s potential; whether it stays within the flatness of a two-dimensional surface or suggests something more spatial.

Artworks don’t exist in isolation from the time and place in which they’re made. I sometimes revisit and rework finished pieces to take them in new directions. In that sense, each completed work becomes a building block for the next.

GX: This presentation features works created using a range of printing methods. Could you walk us through the differences between these techniques, and what guided your decision to use a particular method for each work?

LL: Ahead of this presentation, I made several site visits to better understand the exhibition space, how it feels, how people move through it, and how time is experienced within it. Each work responds to this environment by layering different moments and impressions into a single pictorial surface.

For example, Blue Field and Dark Spring reflect my movement through various thresholds within Esplanade. They were created by repeatedly overprinting the same image onto itself, reiterating the idea of interior spaces, almost like echoes within the image.

Window of Time, first shown in After Light at Mizuma Gallery (Singapore) in 2024, was developed through experimentation with printing on coated surfaces. I was interested in how enlarging an image can draw attention to the tiniest details, like subtle textures and marks that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Embrace Dove (II) began as a fine art print in 2023, but I later reworked it. I was thinking about how light can be contained within an image, and how a flat surface can start to feel sculptural, as if it’s on the verge of becoming three-dimensional.

GX: Your practice often engages with the site in thoughtful and responsive ways, inviting elements like natural light and architecture into the experience of the work. How did you approach these spatial and environmental considerations when selecting and curating works for this presentation at the Community Wall?

LL: In a space filled with natural light, our eyes naturally drift toward the quieter areas, corners where light fades and soft shadows form. When I first encountered the Community Wall, what stood out to me was this gentle interplay between light and shade—how a line or surface can seem to fold into another through subtle shifts in tone. I began photographing light and shadow in my surroundings, paying attention to their intensity and softness. These observations hinted at a kind of spatial depth—a place the eye could linger in—and eventually became source material for the works in this presentation.

In the previous exhibition, I explored how images could function like windows, framing space within a contained gallery setting. With the Community Wall, which is more open and exposed, I saw an opportunity to continue that line of inquiry, this time in a more porous environment. The question for me then is, how do I situate the work with enough breathing room, for the eyes to rest?

Open Plane is on view at Esplanade Mall Level 3 Community Wall from 23 May – 7 Sep 2025.