Liyen Chong is perhaps best known for a series of embroideries she made using her own hair, one of which, I am Here and There (2007), is also held in our collection. She made Flying Oblique just after she had decided she would not make any more embroideries – and just before she had her hair shorn off completely. Named after a position in the Chinese martial art Tai Chi, it suggests both Liyen’s awareness of her outward appearance and a desire to move beyond it. Using a camera with a self-timed shutter, she has caught herself mid-swing, her long hair forming a sweeping curve that echoes several other circular elements she has placed around her studio.

(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )