MEDIUM: Photography/Prints
DESCRIPTION:
This project explores transitional spaces within both urban environments and natural landscapes, examining the physical and psychological tension between geographical places and their inhabitants. The photographs focus on liminal space, a concept derived from the Latin limen, meaning “threshold,” in its psychological form. They capture the ambiguity and uncertainty that accompany pending change and states of in-betweenness. In their physical form, liminal spaces serve the needs of their users and facilitate social interactions. Psychologically, they represent a tension within our collective consciousness that exists between past, present, and future. In my photographic practice, I am drawn to spaces that evoke a sense of yearning. When empty and devoid of human touch, these places leave room for imagination. They prompt questions of what once was and what could have been, and they invite reflection on how our identities shift as we move through spaces in isolation compared to within a community.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
Vivian Ye is a Bachelor of Fine Arts student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison whose practice spans multimedia and 4D installations. Guided by a sustained interest in the mortality and transmutation of lived experiences and emotions, her work explores the cyclical nature of intimacy, loss, and transformation through interdisciplinary methods. She is particularly drawn to how psychological and physical boundaries shape selfhood, especially in moments of rupture, reconnection, and emotional reconfiguration. As part of an ongoing body of work, this project documents environments that evoke curiosity, unease, anticipation, and nostalgia. These spaces function as mirrors, revealing how we inhabit a world in constant transition and how we come to understand ourselves within states of in-betweenness.
