Zhuyang Liu (London based, born in Beijing)

The Slade school of Fine art, London, UK

 

Zhuyang is a multimedia artist, sound artist musician, and researcher whose boundary-pushing practice spans sound, performance, film, moving image, writing, and installation. Working at the intersection of experimental sound, contemporary art, and free improvisation, Liu develops immersive works that blur the boundaries between fiction and reality while interrogating identity, labour, technocracy, the body, and systems of power.

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Deeply rooted in Chinese traditional music, Liu’s practice explores new pathways between Eastern cultural heritage and contemporary artistic languages within an international context. Combining the guzheng and other Asian traditional instruments with sound installations, electronic music, theatrical structures, and spatial sound environments, she develops distinctive sonic systems and compositional approaches that expand how sound, bodies, and audiences interact. Through the deconstruction and recomposition of language, instruments, and sonic structures, Liu reinterprets Eastern musical traditions through experimental and avant-garde practices while proposing new modes of listening within global contemporary art.

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Breaking the fourth wall is a hallmark of Liu’s work. Their projects often invite audiences to inhabit complex sonic environments where participation becomes part of the composition itself. Through dark humour, absurdity, and layered symbolic narratives, Liu’s works superimpose everyday urban life with speculative or transgressive fictional worlds, creating immersive situations where the ordinary and the extraordinary coexist.

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Their works frequently feature hybrid creatures that exist between human and animal forms, set within playful yet unsettling landscapes rich in sound textures. Moving through markets, transportation systems, and social infrastructures, these environments weave together political structures, communal spaces, and intimate human experiences. In doing so, Liu sparks conversations around existence, the body, consumption, law, and the anatomy of political and social systems.

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Alongside their artistic practice, Liu is also engaged in sound research and instrument studies. Her writing The Sonic Arsenal of Alternative Instruments: “Unconventional” Sounds, Noise, and Conflict examines global instrument structures, regional cultures, and improvisational music through the perspectives of instrumentality and sonic ecology, expanding into broader discussions on sound, institutions, music history, and cultural transmission.

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Liu’s works and performances have been presented internationally at major cultural institutions including the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. They became the first Chinese musician to present a guzheng-centred free improvisation performance at the renowned experimental music venue Cafe OTO. Their work has also been shown , performed at Chili Gallery (Solo show), Hundred Years Gallery, Pushkin house, JZ Jazz Club Hangzhou, various experimental sound and free-improvisation, sound and technology festivals across Europe and Asia. They have also been invited as a guest artist lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, where they delivered lectures and workshops on Chinese instruments, experimental sound practices, and intercultural sonic methodologies.

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Through their  interdisciplinary practice, Liu proposes new listening paradigms in which sound, space, and audiences become collectively generated structures. As a new generation Chinese artist, musician working internationally, they continues to expand the possibilities of traditional Chinese music within contemporary experimental sound and global art contexts.

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刘竹洋 (Zhuyang Liu)

现居伦敦（出生于北京） 英国伦敦大学学院斯莱德美术学院 (The Slade)

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刘竹洋是一位多媒体艺术家、声音艺术家、音乐家及研究者。她的艺术实践打破常规，涵盖了声音、表演、电影、动态影像、写作与装置。刘竹阳活跃于实验声音、当代艺术与自由即兴的交汇点，致力于创作模糊虚构与现实边界的沉浸式作品，并借此探讨身份、劳动力、技术治国、身体以及权力系统等课题。

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刘竹洋的创作也深植于具有中国历史内涵的音乐体系和文化，探索在全球语境下连接东方文化遗产与当代艺术语言的新路径。她将古筝及其他亚洲传统乐器与声音装置、电子音乐、剧场结构及空间音频环境相结合，构建出独特的声学系统与创作方法论，拓展了声音、身体与观众之间的互动方式。通过对语言、乐器和声音结构的解构与重组，她以实验性和前卫的视角重新诠释东方音乐传统，并在全球当代艺术语境下提出了新的聆听模式。

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“打破第四面墙”是刘竹洋作品的标志性特征。她的项目通常邀请观众进入复杂的音频环境，使“参与”本身成为作品构成的核心。通过黑色幽默、荒诞主义和多层级的符号叙事，刘竹洋将日常都市生活与投射性或越界的虚构世界重叠，创造出平凡与超现实并存的沉浸式情境。

她的作品中频繁出现介于人类与动物形态之间的“混合生物”，它们置身于声音纹理丰富、既俏皮又令人不安的景观之中。这些环境穿梭于市场、交通系统和社会基础设施之间，将政治结构、公共空间与细腻的个人经验交织在一起。通过这种方式，刘竹洋引发了关于存在、身体、消费、法律以及政治社会系统剖析的对话。

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在艺术实践之外，刘竹洋还致力于声音研究与乐器研究。她的文章《另类乐器的声音军械库：“非常规”声音、噪音与冲突》（The Sonic Arsenal of Alternative Instruments: “Unconventional” Sounds, Noise, and Conflict）从乐器属性和声音生态的角度考察了全球乐器结构、地域文化及即兴音乐，并将讨论延伸至声音、机构、音乐史及文化传播等更广泛的领域。

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刘竹洋的作品与表演曾多次在伦敦大英博物馆、维多利亚与艾伯特博物馆（V&A）等国际顶尖文化机构呈现。她是首位在著名实验音乐殿堂 Cafe OTO 举行以古筝为核心的自由即兴演出的中国音乐家。其作品还曾展出于/演出于 Chili Gallery（个展）、Hundred Years Gallery、Pushkin House、杭州 JZ Jazz Club，以及欧亚各地的实验声音、自由即兴和艺术科技节。此外，她还受邀担任伦敦大学金史密斯学院（Goldsmiths）的客座艺术家讲师，主持关于中国乐器、实验声音实践及跨文化声音方法论的讲座与工作坊。

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通过其跨学科的实践，刘竹洋提出了声音、空间与观众共同生成结构的“新聆听范式”。作为在国际舞台活跃的新一代中国艺术家，音乐家她也持续拓展着有着亚洲及中国文化精神的音乐，声音，在当代实验声音与全球艺术语境中的无限可能。