Beacon designer has show at Mount Saint Mary
Angela Lian can barely sit still. She doesn’t stand still, either. It only seems like she’s fidgety because, at age 12, competitive gymnastics caused a stress fracture in her back that reverberates through her art.
An essay accompanying Lian’s first solo show, Moving Making Moving: Embodied Ecologies, suggests that some of her work imbues themes like “memory loss, chronic pain and loneliness with tenderness and play.” In person, the Beacon artist is cheery and upbeat. Except for the constant motion, there’s no indication that she suffered a debilitating injury.
The exhibit at CMA Gallery at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh occurred by happenstance. The gallery director, Christopher Neyen, read an article on a design website and contacted her.
“She’s a commercial graphic designer who creates in many media and lives nearby, so I thought it would be good for the students to interact with her work,” he says.
Lian, 25, spoke to the students about her artistic journey. She is a graphic designer for Baggu, which makes handbags and accessories.
The rest of her energy and movement is spent dancing, knitting, crocheting, drawing, creating digital collages, striking yoga poses and exploring the great outdoors. Just inside her front door is a ’zine rack.
The gallery show boiled her elaborate Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis, a nearly 500-page, two-volume series, down to a teaspoon.
The backgrounds of eight digital design works are lush with what resembles moss, rocks and green foliage. Seven of them feature an image of the artist, sometimes in multiples. In one work, she’s surfing on a tabby. In another, she adopts a dance-like pose with arms akimbo as two leaves replace her hands.
Through movement and video art, Lian explores her cultural identity as an American with a father born in China and a mother from Taiwan. One project, “Back & Forth,” addresses the May Fourth Movement in China, a post-World War I upheaval that embraced modernization while trying to preserve ancient cultural values.
Lian is a fan of “scores,” or slogans designed to whack the creative process. At the gallery, she hand-painted “Scores for Dreaming” in black on two white walls. Its questions include: “When was the last time you danced?” and “How can you support Mother Nature? How can Mother Nature support you?”
Other statements offer a directive: “Sit in front of someone. Without interruption, start with ‘I want’ and share for three minutes. Switch roles and repeat.”
Lian has a strategy for time management. “Instead of focusing intently on one thing and getting it done, I engage in more limited but intense creativity episodes with multiple projects,” she explains. “That way I can take time away from something to gain perspective. I call it slow-motion multitasking.”
The CMA Gallery, located on the campus of Mount Saint Mary College, 330 Powell Ave., in Newburgh, is open on weekdays. See msmc.edu/cma-gallery or email [email protected]. Moving Making Moving continues through Jan. 10. For more of Lian’s work, see embodiedecologies.cargo.site.
