Image: Boya Liang Photo: Image courtesy of Boya Liang

Boya Liang is the winner of the Similkameen Artist Residency Studio Award, facilitated by Griffin Art Projects, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and SAR.

About her work, Boya notes: “My practice investigates the creation of spaces for encountering uncertainty,  impermanence, and transformation. Drawing from my Chinese heritage and informed  by experiences across diverse cultures, I navigate the confluence of art, science, and Daoist philosophy through material explorations that reveal invisible connections  between individual existence and cosmic cycles. 

I engage with materials as active collaborators. In my recent projects, I have worked with Xuan paper, incense, human hair, and cyanotype, materials that respond  to time, environment, and touch. Process holds more weight than outcome. I burn incense directly on Xuan paper, allowing the slow movement of fire and smoke to  inscribe time into the surface. The process becomes both ritual and revelation. Incense burns into smoke, smoke disperses into air, and ash settles on the ground—each stage marking the transformation of qi (炁), the life force that moves through all things,  creating movements that mirror larger transformative processes. These dialogues manifest my belief that our lives participate in ongoing cycles of existence. Through ephemeral forms and quiet gestures, I invite viewers to  experience the world’s inherent fluidity, finding stability not in fixed answers, but in movement, breath, and becoming.”

Register here to watch Boya’s talk through Zoom facilitated by Similkameen Artist Residency