One thread at a time
Malaysian model and embroidery artist Sheena Liam opens up about her hobby and her first solo exhibition held in Paris.
NOT only is she a top model, Malaysian beauty Sheena Liam has made a name for herself as an artist.
Using her Internet moniker Times New Romance, the 27-year-old has released contemporary embroidery works that have won her acclaim.
Two months ago, Liam held her first solo exhibition at the Item Gallery in Paris. The show titled Times New Romance featured all her completed works in one place for the first time. Previously this series was only shared on Instagram.
“This the first time I’ve showcased my full body of works to the public. It is a curation of all my smaller studio works that I worked on as I travelled,” says Liam via an e-mail interview.
According to Liam, Times New Romance is a series of figurative work exploring moments from her personal life.
In the works, based on photographs of herself, Liam recreates self-portraits with her signature dark green thread (from Malaysian manufacturer Rinata). She only uses canvas and thread in her works. It’s a handmade combination of secure and loose fibres that complete an almost sculptural aesthetic.
As a child, Liam picked the basics of embroidery from her mother and found herself revisiting the medium time and time again as a means of self-expression between travelling and modelling.
Liam, who shuttles between New York and Paris these days, has turned a casual hobby into a sizeable embroidery collection.
The release of her very first (embroidery) pieces garnered wide media attention. After taking up figurative art classes, she has evolved with her art process. She is mostly drawn to figurative art and serves as the subject for many of her own pieces.
If contemporary artist Chong Ai Lei paints extra-large self-portraits that have sensually immense wall power, then Liam’s embroidered works go the opposite direction. Liam’s art, delivered in a far smaller scale, highlights the model’s soulful approach in a minimalistic setting.
“In a strange way, modelling parallels my art in the sense I often have to use body language as a mean of expressing a certain sort of mood. It’s no different from my embroideries,” muses Liam, who won Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 2 competition in 2014.
After her Times New Romance images were released via social media in 2017, Liam cultivated an impressive online following. Presently, the Instagram account @times. new.romance has 242,000 followers.
From her early miniature works in 2016 to her more complex designs later, Liam bared her artistic side to the public for the first time and chose to collaborate with Item Gallery. The gallery is a contemporary art space closely connected with fine art printing house Idem Paris. In the past, South African artist William Kentridge, American contemporary artist Paul McCarthy and renowned director David Lynch have exhibited at Item Gallery.
The Kajang, Selangor-raised model was first spotted (for her art) and approached by Patrice Forrest, who runs Item Gallery.
Liam, who married Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic in September, credits her 31-year-old spouse for giving her the confitake dence to her artworks to the masses.
“Ernest has always been very supportive of everything I do. When I was offered to show, I inirefused, tially but it took convinchim ing from and a lot of friends to see that this is not an opportunioffered ty that is to everyone,” she says.
She reveals that all of the pieces are personal to her. The works have been safely stored in her travel luggage.
“I’ve travelled with them and carried them in my suitcase for two years. They have followed me around the world,” she says.
What is her most favourite work?
“Maybe Girl In Front Of Mirror as it is the most detailed piece I worked on,” she mentions about this 30cm x 30cm work.
In terms of scale and ambition, she wants to create larger works.
“I made a piece measuring 1.5m x 1.5m for an installation in Singapore. I probably spent two months on that,” says Liam, who is inspired by the late Chen Yifei, one of China’s most renowned contemporary artists.
For the Times New Romance exhibition, it took Liam two years to put everything together.
Despite being currently based in the United States, she is enthusiastic about the idea of exhibiting her works in Malaysia.
“I would love to if presented with the proper space and opportunity. I want to work on an even bigger scale which I believe is possible, especially in Malaysia with all the local crafts people I can engage with,” says Liam.
As for her plans in 2019, she is basically looking to hit the reset button and start again from scratch.
“The past year has been a crux of everything: my solo exhibition and my marriage. I kind of want 2019 to be a fresh start. I want to work on new and more diverse projects.”
More info: www.timesnewromance.net.