廖雯的创作包含雕塑、影像和表演，涵盖身体、仪式、神话和⾃然多个领域。从早年制作木偶的经历中汲取灵感，她的创作通过使用木材和硅胶这两种反差感强烈的材料，制作出暗示躯干、骨骼、器官和人兽混合体的雕塑，探讨身体的脆弱与力量。这种材料上冲突感同样贯穿于她的作品本身——有机与无机、坚硬与柔软、光滑与哑光、平衡与失调、动态与静止。
廖雯扭曲的木制身体传递出一种基于力的平衡与制约之美，通过对关节之间力量的传递与相互作用，描绘出身体瞬间紧张的状态，展现出一种暗藏于临界平衡状态下的撕扯与不安。廖雯的艺术中融入了个⼈的身体意识和物理经历，反映出个体在公共领域、集体仪式和神话等背景下不断变化的条件和可塑的⾃我意识。
《⾁铺》(2018−2020) 系列项目是廖雯对在雕塑语言中运动身体部位和器官的初步探索。其中，《⼀⽚⼈脸》(2018)基于硅胶制作出男⼦脸部的切⽚，背⾯是⼤脑的内部结构。整个“⼈⾁”被密封起来，因挤压⽽变形，就像速冻的⻝物。它探讨了被物化的身体所承受痛苦，及其中的美学意义。这种对身体的感知和探讨在她的项⽬《感知》(2022−今) 得到进⼀步诠释。与《⾁铺》中对身体疼痛的直接描绘相⽐，该系列更将呼吸、排泄和呕吐等经常被忽视的身体功能带⼊雕塑语⾔。如艺术家所说：“在新系列《感知》中，我尝试用纯粹的雕塑语言去表现身体知觉，比如线条、体积、体块间的关系，以及材料……在创作的过程中，我对于身体感知形成了前所未有的专注和敏感，全神贯注地揣摩自己的感受，并最终将其视觉化。”
这种将身体作为一种感知的渠道来探讨，而非仅是物质存在或审美对象的思考贯穿廖雯的创作。《临界之躯》(2020−今)是艺术家最全⾯的系列项⽬。该系列⽬前公开共6件作品，作品内容随着她的⽣活经历和视⻆的变化⽽添加和发展。每件作品都具有灵活的关节和可拆卸的附肢。这个系列中的身体造型在一种极端的姿势中保持平衡的结构和静态的动势，呈现出即将崩溃的临界状态。作品中肢体语⾔本身带有的情感状态，和对身体⼒量与脆弱性的探索，引发观者对痛苦和创伤在个体与社会互动中的相互作用及权利关系的思考。
在作品《别离》(2020)中，廖雯⾸次将⽊偶与雕塑融合在⼀起，躯体呈现出向前的倾斜，弯曲的脊柱与细⻓的颈部并列，抵消了向前的动⼒，悬挂在前⾯的硅⽚相对于整个结构承载着相当⼤的重量。这⼀特征不仅强调了向前倾斜，⽽且还唤起了明显的引⼒感。《⼏乎歇斯底⾥》(2020)试图描绘⼀种极端的状态，拱形的躯⼲受到癔症综合症在医学临床插图中描绘形象的影响。作品头部似扁桃体，不锈钢⽀撑着颈臀，脚尖轻触地，呈现出脆弱的平衡。《抵抗》(2022)的灵感来⾃于她对抑郁症好友的深切同情和关⼼。躯体背部悬挂着⾬滴挂件，元素灵感取⾃鲁珀茨之泪。材料使⽤了⼀种经典的玻璃品种，其特点是头部坚固，尾部极其脆弱。弯曲的⽊质主体看起来好像正在尽最⼤努⼒防⽌它们破碎。《犹疑》(2020)，呈现了⼀个匍匐在地的⼥性形象，头部像⼀个垂挂的囊袋，由⼀个强健的附肢保护和⽀撑，这个附肢顶端的红宝⽯尖头的卷须暗示着囊袋的流⾎。《凝视》(2022)，制作了⼀个向胯部后⽅观察的形象，该作品通过姿势引发观者思考⼈体何时转变为符合社会规范和价值观。《逆⻛》(2023)中，描绘⼈物与看不⻅的⼒量激烈对抗，身体被制服、扭曲，使观者思考在动荡中如何保持平衡。《临界之躯》系列系统地展示艺术家对于身体姿势更深层次的理解，她通过悬浮在稳定状态的雕塑结构暗示着类似的接近阈值的身体和精神状态。除《临界之躯》和《感知》外，《节律之仪》和《毒药或解药》是廖雯另外两项⻓期创作项目。通过对前现代宗教或神话仪式的研究，以及对她童年时期所经历的季节性仪式的探讨，廖雯创造出一系列边界模糊的身体雕塑。他们打破了人类、动物、植物之间的界限，颠倒了身体的内外关系，暗示着一种紧张又微妙的欲望感和存在的流动性。廖雯认为，“身体作为人的内在宇宙，不仅可以反映一个人的处境，而且还可以揭示群体中共通的习惯和集体潜意识。”
在廖雯的作品中，我们既能看到对个体经历和身体自觉性的发掘，又能看到个体叙事与其环境和社会互动间的权利关系。这种矛盾的张力，正如这些奇异的类人类雕塑所展现出的扭曲但平衡的形态，表达出一种对冲突的极致把控。令人不禁思考：这种把控是否提供了一种隐秘的反制，无形中反转了控制与被控制的权利关系？如果廖雯的雕塑中的这些存在真的是木偶，那么究竟是何种力量在控制着那些看不见的操纵线？或者，它们可能从未被任何线所束缚？
Liao Wen's artistic practice includes sculpture, video, and performance, contemplating on themes of the body, rituals, mythology, and nature. Drawing inspiration from her early experiences with puppetry, she primarily works with wood and silicone to create sculptures that signify torsos, bones, organs, and hybrid creatures, exploring the vulnerability and strength of the body. This material contradiction is mirrored in her work itself—organic versus inorganic, rigid versus flexible, smooth versus matte, balanced versus disordered, dynamic versus static.
Liao's twisted and distorted wooden bodies create a sense of beauty rooted in the balance and constraints of forces, depicting moments of tension through the interaction of joints, revealing the unsettling life experience at liminal stages. Her art integrates personal bodily awareness and physical experiences, reflecting the evolving conditions and malleable self-consciousness of individuals within public, collective ritual, and mythological contexts.
The project
The Flesh Store (2018-2020) is Liao Wen's initial attempt of incorporating body parts and organs into her sculptures. One of the strong works in the series,
A Slice of Human Flesh (2018), features a silicone slice of a man's face with the reverse side displaying brain structures. This "human flesh" is sealed and compressed into deformity as if some kind of frozen food. The work examines the pain endured by the commodified body and its aesthetic significance.Such exploration of body perceptions is further examined in her project
Sensation (2022–ongoing). Compared to the direct depiction of physical distress in
The Flesh Store, this series incorporates often overlooked bodily functions such as breathing, excretion, and vomiting into the sculptural language. As the artist stated: “In the new series
‘Sensation’, I am practicing using purely sculptural language, such as lines, volume, relationship between parts, and materials, to express body perception…When making the works, I gained unprecedented focus and sensitivity on body perceptions, trying to figure out how I feel and eventually visualizing it”
This conception of the body as a conduit of perception, rather than merely as a material presence or an aesthetic object, permeates Liao Wen's work.
Almost Collapsing Balance (2020–ongoing) is her most comprehensive series to date, currently comprising six publicly shown pieces. The series evolves with her own life experiences, with each pieces encompassing flexible joints and detachable appendages. The sculptures depict extremely distorted bodies in a balanced structure and static momentum, insinuating a state of imminent collapse. The emotional states portrayed through gestures and the contrast between bodily strength and fragility provoke reflections on the interplay of pain, trauma, and power dynamics in individual and societal interactions.
In
Don't Leave (2020), Liao Wen merges puppetry with sculpture for the first time. The body is shown leaning forward, with a curved spine juxtaposed against a long neck, counterbalancing the forward momentum. The silicone piece hanging in front carries significant weight relative to the entire structure, evoking not only a sense of forward tilt but also a palpable sense of gravity.In the sculpture
Almost Hysterical (2020), Liao Wen depicts an extreme state, inspired by medical illustrations of hysteria. The arched torso, with a head resembling a tonsil, is supported by stainless steel at the neck and pelvis, with toes barely touching the ground, suggesting a fragile balance.
Resist (2022) draws inspiration from Liao's empathy for a friend with depression. The sculptural body, with raindrop pendants inspired by Prince Rupert's drops attached to its back, a glass structure characterized by an indestructible head and an extremely fragile tail. The sculpture depicts a wooden structure that appears to be striving to prevent the drops from breaking. In
Hesitation (2020), a female figure crawls with a dangling sack-like head, supported by a robust limb. The sharp tip of the tentacle, made from ruby stone, implies blood and violence to come.
Stare (2022) portrays a figure looking backward towards its hip, confronting viewers to reflect on the body's conformity to social norms. In
Headwind (2023), the figure struggles against unseen forces, with the body deformed and twisted, evoking insights on maintaining balance amid turmoil. The
Almost Collapsing Balance series shows the artist's deep understanding of bodily postures, capturing a liminal state of both physical being and the mind in sculptural structures that suspend in critical balance. In addition to
Almost Collapsing Balance and
Sensation, Liao Wen has two other ongoing projects —
Rites of Season and
Poisons or Antidotes. Through her research into pre-modern rituals, and her childhood experiences with seasonal ceremonies, Liao creates a series of sculptures with blurred physical boundaries. These works break down the distinctions between humans, animals, and plants, inverting internal and external aspects of the body. They suggest tensions and subtle desires, along with the fluidity of human existence. Liao explains:"The body, as an internal universe, reflects not only an individual's condition but also the shared habits and collective unconscious within a group."
In Liao Wen's works, we see both an exploration of individual experiences and bodily self-awareness, as well as the power dynamics between these individual narratives and their environmental and social interactions. This contradictory tension, reflected in the distorted yet balanced forms of her humanoid sculptures, showcases a mastery over conflict. It prompts one to wonder: could such manipulation function as a counter measurement to the conflict itself, subtly reversing the power dynamics of control and being controlled? And if Liao Wen’s sculptures are indeed puppets, who or what are the forces holding the invisible strings that control them? Or even, are they actually attached to any strings at all?