Death of the Opera Performer

Jikang Liu, USA-Beijing

While I was back home in Beijing, I visited a Peking-Opera themed-restaurant, whose employees dressed up in generic costumes to promote their business. Based on this experience, I wanted to develop an imagery of the metaphorical “death” of an opera performer, stripped away from the stage, advocating for restaurant deals instead. I replaced the opera performer’s decorative flags (which are usually part of the costume) with flags with advertisements printed on them, to create an ironic imagery. Through doing this, I wanted to showcase the depreciation of the traditional arts at the hands of consumerism, and our apathy towards it as a society.

Death of the Opera Performer

© Jikang Liu

Jikang Liu is a 19-year-old aspiring artist in New York. After graduation from high school in 2018, she tried to shove her passion for fine art aside when she started studying something completely unrelated in college. She thought she was never going to paint again, until she found herself constantly creating and painting. Recently, she decided that she will, for once, choose something for herself in life, and pursue art professionally.