Xinyu Liu sits under the protective overhang of the outdoor patio at Espresso Roma as rain falls around him. He flips through a tightly-bound book filled with a collection of photographs taken over the course of several years. Titled “The President Sang Amazing Grace,” the book is a collection of Liu’s photography and a commentary on political disillusion in the United States.
The same photographs lined the walls of Washburn Gallery in the Millrace Art + Design Studios last week at UO. Arranged neatly on the stark gallery walls, the images played with religious iconography and the idea of time as a day unfolds.
Liu is a second-year Masters of Fine Arts photography student at UO. He is currently in the process of publishing “The President Sang Amazing Grace,” which he hopes to use for the Paris Photo-Aperture Photobook Awards.
Liu grew up in Hangzhou, China, and came to the U.S. to pursue an undergraduate degree in journalism. “The President Sang Amazing Grace,” was born four years ago as he finished that degree.
“I never actually studied art,” Liu said. “I kind of picked up photography by myself.”
With a journalism background, Liu’s work is influenced by the U.S.’s nuanced political climate. “This entire project is sort of a reflection based on the 2015 Charleston shooting,” Liu said. “It sort of shaped my first impression of America, how the events unfolded.”
The project is named after a moment at the Charleston shooting when former President Barack Obama delivered a eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney.
“Nine days after the shooting, President Obama came to that church in Charleston and sang ‘Amazing Grace’ to the audience,” Liu said. “I think Obama said that he felt like he used up all the words, and that was the only thing he could do.”
Liu describes the U.S. as an exhausted country due to the predictability of the news, specifically in regards to violence and political backlash.
“What does it mean the moment Obama sang ‘Amazing Grace?’” Liu said. “It kind of summarized what has happened in the last four years, which is like everything happened but nothing really changes.”
“The President Sang Amazing Grace” begins with a photograph taken by Liu four years ago in a time he describes as “exhausted.” Many of the images within the project contain both subtle and overt religious iconography, a reflection of the tired use of the phrase “thoughts and prayers” by American politicians.
Liu flipped through the pages of his prototype photobook before stopping on an image taken on Farish Street, a historic Black neighborhood in Jackson, Mississippi. What was once a bustling epicenter of the community is now a congregation of empty lots and run-down businesses. Liu’s photography is influenced by the historical trauma and power dynamics of spaces such as Farish Street.
Liu describes his photographs as post-documentary. “What makes post-documentary different from documentary is there’s something more poetic, something more subconscious within the context,” Liu said. “Especially within the narrative, that makes you think about interconnection within the system instead of focusing on one individual event.”
The collection of photographs contains subtle and overt images of religion at play, including photographs taken during Memorial Day at the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery. Other images in “The President Sang Amazing Grace” were taken in New York, Seattle, Portland, California, Texas and Massachusetts.
“If you ask me if there’s a solution to the current problems in our society, I would say no. If I could do that, I wouldn’t be an artist, I wouldn’t be a photographer,” Liu said. “I am not just documenting what is going on but also documenting the space that allows it to happen. Trying to articulate the vibe in society that’s sort of like an elephant in the room that nobody is actually talking about.”
Liu hopes to obtain a work visa after graduating from UO so that he can teach photography and continue living in the U.S.
“I feel like everything is still pointed back to me being an outsider,” Liu said. “I think I understood the system being an outsider and living here for many years. It’s like, how do I digest the sort of systematic failure in this country?”
Liu hopes to publish “The President Sang Amazing Grace” as a softback photobook within the coming year.
Check out Xinyu Liu’s photography and other works on Instagram: @the_other_sea
