MIAO MIAO

In A Pre-arranged Life, artist Miao Miao constructs a world composed of two intertwined realms: ‘People’ and ‘Landscapes.’

The ‘People’ section continues her exploration of the Paravent format—a medium she has used to examine the anonymous figures encountered in daily life. These individuals, often clad in uniforms, are fragmented, flattened, and recomposed, their faces reduced to blocks of colour. They are strangers from the artist’s urban surroundings, but through imaginative projection, they become carriers of borrowed identity—an amalgamation of “them” and a speculative ‘me.’

In contrast, the ‘Landscapes’ are drawn from Miao’s travels and everyday observations: waves under city lights, quiet moonlit paths, streets and trees. These scenes are devoid of human presence, yet subtly personified. They are rendered with a different rhythm and touch, offering a visual and emotional counterpoint to the figures on the folding screens.

Rather than opposing elements, ‘People’ and ‘Landscapes’ together form a web of pre-arranged life fragments—structured yet intimate, constructed yet familiar. Through this interplay, viewers are invited to find traces of themselves, to contemplate their own relationships with strangers and settings once passed by.