(8 Feb 2012)
1. Pan from Liu Xia doll photograph on display at Columbia University to sign reading (English) "The Silent Strength of Liu Xia"
2. Wide of visitor at exhibition
3. Close-up of doll in Liu Xia photograph
4. Wide of three photographs
5. Walking shot of exhibition curator Guy Sorman
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Sorman, Curator of Liu Xia exhibition:
"When I first saw these photos it was at Liu Xia's apartment and she considered it was not art, it was a way to spend her time and she didn't want the photos to be shown. So I discovered the photos in her place nearly by accident. And I said 'Liu Xia but what is this?' and she said 'oh it's nothing, you know, I'm trying to keep myself busy."
7. Wide of Italian Academy at Columbia University, where exhibition is taking place
8. Close-up of photograph
9. Mid of photographs including one of Liu Xia's husband Liu Xiaobo
10. Close-up of photograph of Liu
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Sorman, curator of Liu Xia exhibition:
"Her photos describe China, the Chinese society, the repression, possibly, the censorship and the fact that you can't express yourself freely. She described the situation. And Liu Xiaobo, I would say, proposes solutions, and that's the way they work together, I feel."
12. Various of doll photographs
13. Wide pan of exhibition
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Sorman, curator of Liu Xia exhibition:
"With very limited technical resources - an old camera, most of the photos taken in the apartment proper and just showing dolls in different situations - she was able to convey so much about what it means to live in China today, to be an intellectual in China, to be censored and repressed."
15. Pan of exhibition
16. Close-up of doll photograph
STORYLINE:
Liu Xia is a forbidden artist whose work is censored in her native China. The photographer, who is under house arrest, uses life-like dolls as metaphors for the pain and suffering of the Chinese people.
Liu knows what it is to work in an oppressed society.
Her husband is Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner jailed in 2009 for 11 years for urging democratic reform in China.
But Liu's photographs are not about her husband, said Guy Sorman, a friend of the couple, and curator of an exhibition of her works which will open at Columbia University, in New York on Thursday.
Speaking on Tuesday, Sorman said: "Her photos describe China, the Chinese society, the repression, possibly, the censorship and the fact that you can't express yourself freely. She described the situation. And Liu Xiaobo, I would say, proposes solutions, and that's the way they work together I feel."
Sorman discovered the photos by accident while visiting the couple's Beijing home.
He immediately began convincing Liu, who is in her 50s, to let him exhibit them.
She declined at first because she thought they were not important.
The 25 photos were taken out of China just before Liu was placed under house arrest at the end of 2010, after her husband was awarded the Nobel prize.
When Sorman last saw Liu in September 2010, she gave her consent to have the pictures shown in Europe and the United States.
But to avoid suspicion, a network of her friends helped get them out of the country.
The black-and-white photos - most measuring 3-feet by 3-feet (approximately 90 cm by 90 cm) are taken with an old-fashioned camera and printed with very limited technical resources.
A museum in France exhibited them in autumn.
"The Silent Strength of Liu Xia" at Columbia runs until 1 March and is the only planned US show.
Afterwards, it will travel to Madrid and Hong Kong.
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