'Starting from 1994, my painted sculpture series have combined costumes and[models of] women’s partial bodies to demonstrate my conceptual intentions. However, the painted sculpture series that I have made last year—the Memory of Infatuation and Merriment, employed [female bodies] and qipao as the visual language directly. I have retained the original style [by] omitting their heads and hands. I always think that the existence of the image of heads would disrupt my creation intent and limit the development of viewers’ imagination and intelligence. The [motifs] in the work take [form] of a combination of qipao, sofa and plates. Qipao has been the most symbolic representation of Chinese women, which would remind the viewers directly, and arouse their mysterious fantasy and desire for control.  The sofa often brings to mind words like modern, power, money, sexy, comfort, the West, etc. The combination of these two [aspects of visualisation] brought a seemingly endless impact to one’s imagination… The plate reminds us of the idea of “delicious colours”. It is just a visual carrier, to which different viewers will react differently. Thus, a visual and psychological acuteness is demonstrated in this humorous way.
The placement of hands and tie is designed to disrupt the viewers from relating the artwork to beauty. Instead, it relates to topics such as living environment, hope in survival, and social issues. Thus, people are warned and inspired to meditate…
The work was made in Jingdezhen, the [hub of ceramic production] in China, using ceramic as the material. Ceramic has a history of several thousand years and [pertains to a] profound cultural background in China. The work displays a combination of contemporary modelling language and traditional techniques.'
(Text provided by the artist: 'The Painted Sculpture Series: the Memory of Infatuation and Merriment' by Liu Jianhua. Written in June 1999.)