By Grace Stanley
What does it mean to vanish?
It’s the question explored by “The Land at the Bottom of the Sea,” a multimedia installation featured earlier this year as part of the “Monstrous Beauty” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Through surreal live-action video, 3D animation and organic sculptures, artist Jen Liu reflects on vanishing – not just physically, but financially, politically and socially. Liu’s work reflects on the collapse of once-trusted systems – labor movements silenced under state pressure, techno-optimism sinking under environmental crisis – and the fragile traces that survive their loss.
The underwater world was realized at Cornell Tech, where, in 2022, the arts initiative Backslash first nurtured the project. Founded in 2016 to connect artists with technologists and academics across Cornell’s campuses, Backslash has grown into a global launchpad, with its artists debuting works at major venues, including the Taipei Biennial, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Asia Culture Center, the M+ Museum in Hong Kong and Cornell’s own Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.
Read more in the Cornell Chronicle.
Grace Stanley is the staff writer-editor for Cornell Tech.
