Featured Artist
Lisa Tang Liu & James David Tabor
It’s fun to share the works of Lisa Tang Liu and James David Tabor. A big part of what is fun for me with this feature is that Lisa is an old friend from back in the day when I was on the board of directors with the Cambridge Art Association. We’d not seen one another for twelve or so years when we reconnected in 2024. I had seen she and her work popping up and was excited when we finally were able to connect in person. I’d always felt that Lisa produced thoughtful dynamic art and was most drawn recently to her collaborative project with James Tabor. This photography series explores the fusion of two distinct artistic perspectives, blending their styles to create a re-imagined world. By layering and mixing elements from each artist’s work, the series highlights the interplay between realism and abstraction, tradition and innovation. We are so pleased to host these works. - Steven Duede
Lisa Tang Liu & James David Tabor
I met Lisa through a mutual artist friend, and later, when we had the opportunity to talk about her work, we focused on two projects. One, Self-Reconstructed, is a series of self-portraits that incorporate photography, painting, and woven hand-work. The entire series is an exercise in being seen. Lisa describes her choice of subject as a way of reclaiming her visibility and to “rumble with shame,” in the words of social scientist Brené Brown. This means to confront difficult topics while being vulnerable and open, to have an honest conversation without shame.
Lisa wrote about her self-portraits as unabashed and open explorations of self with the “hope to achieve, from within, clarity and a sense of belonging.” In writing about the works from Self-Reconstructed, which are currently on view at the Danforth Art Museum, we noted that Lisa’s works sometimes scream with frustration at the complications of contemporary life, yet they are also steeped in gratitude for the natural world. Works like One with Nature and Restless are black and white photographs that express these exact sentiments through layering of imagery. It is these two images that are the closest to the works in the Alchemy of the Unknowns, Lisa’s collaboration with James David Tabor.
The photographs in Alchemy of the Unknowns are layered images—one produced by Lisa, the other by Tabor. The project developed when the artists connected on Instagram over their shared return to the film medium. They asked, “What would pictures look like when two strangers from Boston and Phoenix, separated by 2,700 miles, collaborate and double-expose one roll of film?” The results are layered landscapes that reveal the spaces and places that each artist currently occupies—separate but together. Lisa’s search for a sense of belonging surfaces in these works as well. The act of creating can be a lonely endeavor, and collaborating with a fellow photographer bridges a gulf and brings both participants into a shared community. That shared community comes to life in the Alchemy of the Unknowns.
Jessica Roscio, Ph.D
Director and Curator, Danforth Art Museum
Challenged with the uncertainties of using film and the discomfort of relinquishing control over the fate of our own individual creations, we learn to accept, and even embrace, the unknowns.
Alchemy of the unknowns
A Collaborative Project by Lisa Tang Liu and J. David Tabor
“Formless form, image of the unimaginable; call it certain uncertainty.” – Laozi, Dao De Jing
What would pictures look like when two strangers from Boston and Phoenix, separated by 2,700 miles, collaborate and double-expose one roll of film?
Isolated by the pandemic, in a polarized, less-than-united United States, many turned to photography as an outlet, and Instagram for community. Some began to participate in an analog photography revival, perhaps clinging onto something tangible in the ever-encroaching virtual world. We are two such photographers who connected on Instagram over our return to the film medium, Holga cameras, and conversations about Daoism–philosophy about living in balance and harmony.
In the spring of 2023, we began our experimental collaboration in ”film swaps,” the practice of having one photographer first expose images on an entire roll of film and mail it to another, who would then expose the same film again from the beginning. Massachusetts and Arizona are very different places–geographically and politically. We wanted to see how images from such different places would look together. Each of us had no (or very little) knowledge of what the other person had photographed. The end results here are all surprises.
Challenged with the uncertainties of using film and the discomfort of relinquishing control over the fate of our own individual creations, we learn to accept, and even embrace, the unknowns. - Lisa
Lisa Tang Liu
Lisa Tang Liu
Lisa Tang Liu is an interdisciplinary visual artist working in photography, collage, and painting. As a naturalized U.S. citizen raised in a working-class immigrant family, she ponders the tension between belonging and alienation, as well as the meaning of being “American”. Her conceptual work examines our interconnectedness with each other and all living things.
Lisa earned a BA from Wellesley College and studied at the New England School of Photography. In 2024, she was selected by Samantha Johnston for the 28th annual EXPOSURE show at the Photographic Resource Center. Lisa recently completed the exhibition PROCESS at Panopticon Gallery. Her art is currently on view in the group show SELFHOOD at the Danforth Art Museum. Lisa’s work has been shown in Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Arizona, and Texas, and is held in several private collections. She lives with her husband Ken and their two daughters in Massachusetts. Visit: Lisa
James David Tabor
James David Tabor
Born on the banks of the mighty Salt River in the Sonoran desert, J. David Tabor has lived as a spoken word artist, welder, bronze smith and photographer. Through his photography, he observes everyday objects and living things around him, noting the extraordinary in the ordinary.
In 2024, David was selected by Samantha Johnston for the 28 th annual EXPOSURE show at the Photographic Resource Center. David recently completed the exhibition PROCESS at Panopticon Gallery. Most recently, he was selected by Arthur Ollman as a winner of the Living and Photographing in an Imperfect Union at the Photographer’s Eye Collective. He has been exhibiting his work in Arizona, Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia, Texas, and California. He resides in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife Sue and their dog Stout.
Visit James David Tabor