Chinese Herbs Suspended in Resin Usher in Healing in Wen Liu’s Skeletal Sculptures
“Ouroflora” (2025),
prescribed herbal medicine, epoxy clay, resin, acrylic, varnish, 34 x 46 x 1 1/2 inches. All images courtesy of Wen Liu, shared with permission
Chinese Herbs Suspended in Resin Usher in Healing in Wen Liu’s Skeletal Sculptures
June 3, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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“In traditional Chinese medicine, treatments are prescribed through dialogue—how well one can communicate internal pain becomes a condition for healing,” says Wen Liu. Particularly difficult in moments of agony and discomfort, accurately describing our bodily sensations is essential for receiving treatment, and yet, as Liu points out, it’s also an act of translation that can feel nearly impossible while suffering and speaking a second or third language.
The Shanghai-born artist, who is now based in Brooklyn, draws on this reality for her sculptural works that suspend dried herbs in tinted resin. Liu began incorporating these natural prescriptions into her practice when her father died “as a way to metabolize grief and explore healing through cultural connection,” she adds.
“In Light, Where Edges Yield” (2025), prescribed herbal medicine, epoxy clay, resin, acrylic, varnish, stainless steel, 65 x 65 x 3 1/2 inches
Painted in pale purples and greens or silver, the molded-clay structures are architectural and skeletal, while the herbal portions evoke both stained-glass windows often seen in churches and cathedrals and vulnerable membranes of the body. Many works are affixed to the wall, although the human-sized “In Light, Where Edges Yield” stands freely on four legs with a spinal column at its center.
Liu is intrigued by the way light filters through these surfaces and appears on the other side as a sacred, distorted beam of color. “This refracted illumination offers a sensory language beyond speech, mirroring the project’s exploration of emotions like grief, the processes of healing, and the inadequacy of language in capturing lived experience,” she adds.
Continually mixing Eastern and Western traditions, Liu instills a sense of harmony and balance in her works. She gravitates toward symmetry and presents her sculptures almost like a Rorschach test, inviting viewers into a delicate dialogue of healing.
Antidote is on view through June 21 at Gaa Gallery in New York. Liu is currently working toward an exhibition opening this month at Tang Contemporary Art Beijing, and you can explore more on her website and Instagram. (via Young Space)
“Inarticulate Trace No1.” (2023), prescribed herbal medicine, epoxy clay, resin, paint, UV resistant varnish, 37 x 32 x 1.5 inches
“Silhouette of a Dose” (2022), prescribed herbal medicine, epoxy clay, resin, paint, UV resistant varnish, 43 x 41 x 1.5 inches
Detail of “Silhouette of a Dose” (2022), prescribed herbal medicine, epoxy clay, resin, paint, UV resistant varnish, 43 x 41 x 1.5 inches
Detail of “In Light, Where Edges Yield” (2025), prescribed herbal medicine, epoxy clay, resin, acrylic, varnish, stainless steel, 65 x 65 x 3 1/2 inches
“Inarticulate Trace No2.” (2024), prescribed herbal medicine, epoxy clay, resin, paint, UV resistant varnish, 40 x 43 x 1.5 inches
“Inarticulate Trace No3.” (2024), prescribed herbal medicine, epoxy clay, resin, paint, UV resistant varnish, 43.5 x 40.5 x 1.5 inches
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