Skyler Liu | Lost in Time, 2021

50 x 62 cm

Edition of 20

In the article Untying the Knot: Memory and Forgetting in Contemporary Print Work' by Australian artist Deidre Brollo, she describes the phenomenon of memory using the words' impression' and 'imprint', 'trace' and 'recollection'. She conceptualised memory as a print made upon the soul; prints and photographs are both media that restore information about our memories. Therefore, Brollo suggests that memory is an active process rather than one of passive storage. Skyler worked on a series of stone lithography in her study at the Royal College of Art, focusing on disproportion portraits and photography, recollections of her dreams and childhood. In her work, 'Loss in Time', Skyler references Ocean Vuong's book, 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous', where she quotes, 'the human eye is god's loneliest creation. How so much of the world passes through the pupil still holds nothing. The eye, alone in its socket, doesn't even know there's another one, just like it, an inch away, just as hungry, as empty.' Skyler emphasises emotion's numbness by painting the water-like background's swirl using lithograph touche, compared to the stillness of the portrait in the centre, staring quietly into the emptiness. Necessarily, Skyler's works are the documentation of her psychological healing process. It is a journey of self-understanding, acceptance, and forgiveness.