# Project Description MOLT Yuxiao Liu Summary Final work Yuxiao Liu is a visual artist and photographer whose practice explores the intersection between tenderness, identity, and the human relationship with the non-human world. Working across photography, installation, and sculpture, Liu constructs staged environments that blur reality and fiction, using insects, paper figures, and domestic spaces as emotional metaphors. Their work often reflects on masculinity, vulnerability, and the politics of care—inviting viewers to inhabit a space where fragility becomes strength. Through a poetic lens, Liu examines how transformation, both personal and collective, unfolds in the quiet tension between nature and artifice. Yuxiao Liu is a visual artist and photographer whose practice explores the intersection between t... College London College of Communication Course MA Photography Graduation year 2025 “Molt” proposes tenderness as power. It dismantles the script that men must be hard, and reads vulnerability as an active form of care. Two rooms stage the passage from social regulation to self regulation, yet neither is a refuge; both expose how identity is worn, policed, and unlearned. Paper figures and insects, my childhood friends, act as autobiographical doubles, carrying what was once mocked or excluded back into view. Rather than fixing what is broken out of sight, the project keeps the process visible, inviting the viewer to inhabit a “safe house” where coexistence, mutual regard, and gentleness become durable. Final work Molt (Room I: Safe House) In Molt , a man sits in a retro living room filled with paper insects and traces of nature. The work explores tenderness as a quiet form of resistance, challenging the expectation that men must be strong and detached. The domestic space becomes both intimate and unsettling a place where identity is performed, unlearned, and redefined. Paper figures, my childhood companions, act as fragile doubles that bring back what was once excluded. The image invites the viewer into a “safe house” where vulnerability becomes a kind of power. Molt (Room II: After the Performance) In this image from Molt , a man in a suit lies exhausted on a kitchen counter, surrounded by objects of routine and decay. The setting evokes a quiet aftermath where control collapses into vulnerability. Insects rest on his clothes, blurring the boundaries between human and nature, life and stillness. The work continues to question masculinity and emotional regulation, exposing the tension between external appearance and internal fragility. It reflects a state of shedding where identity, like skin, loosens and renews. Molt (Becoming Tender) This image from Molt captures a moment of stillness and transformation. A man, wearing makeup and a checked jacket, sits on a patterned carpet with a beetle resting on his mouth an unsettling yet intimate gesture. The scene blurs beauty and discomfort, inviting the viewer to reconsider vulnerability as strength. Through this quiet confrontation, the work explores how tenderness, often silenced or shamed, becomes an act of defiance. The insect, both delicate and resilient, mirrors the human desire to coexist with fragility and renewal. Molt (Fragments of Care) This image from Molt focuses on the quiet aftermath of transformation. A hand stretches toward a fragile paper chair among shattered glass, wilted flowers, and scattered insects. The scene evokes tenderness amid collapse, revealing how care persists in the ruins of control. By framing vulnerability as an ongoing process rather than a fixed state, the work suggests that gentleness like repair is never complete. It invites reflection on the beauty that remains in what is broken, forgotten, or left behind. Share this project “Molt” proposes tenderness as power. It dismantles the script that men must be hard, and reads vulnerability as an active form of care. Two rooms stage the passage from social regulation to self regulation, yet neither is a refuge; both expose how identity is worn, policed, an... A link to this page has been added to your clipboard Browse related work Aesthetics Being Human Body Identity Mental Health Nature & Environment Places & Spaces