AGOG presents Dopamine Era: From Freedom to Formation by Shirley W. Liu

Version I
As digital pixels flood our perception—faster than we can process—they shape not only what we see but how we speak, think, and express. What were once tools to document and reflect have become instruments of performance, proof, and algorithmic reward. The act of recording has shifted from an art form, an intimate necessity to a public obligation.

Words, too, when stretched beyond their original power—once enough to move, to express—are now judged and stylized in postured captions. Its weight has first been inflated, then been diluted by repetition, by expectation, by the need to be seen.

Through paintings, installations, and sculptures, Dopamine Era: From Freedom to Formation responds to the overwhelming addiction of media as proof in hope to reclaim space for freedom to observe, to express. It may not need to be conditioned. It only needs to be ours.

Version II
As digital pixels inundate our perceptual field at a velocity that exceeds our cognitive capacity, they do more than merely mediate vision—they recalibrate the very frameworks through which we speak, think, and perform expression. What once served as tools for documentation and introspective reflection have been transfigured into mechanisms of performativity, evidentiary display, and algorithmic gratification. The act of recording, formerly a private gesture of aesthetic or existential necessity, has been reconstituted as a public imperative—a gesture compelled by visibility rather than authenticity.

Language, too, has undergone a similar erosion of integrity. Words, once sufficient to evoke, to wound, to stir, have become stylized artifacts—flattened into consumable captions, emptied of resonance by repetition and aestheticized for social affirmation. Their semantic weight has first been inflated, then evacuated—trivialized by the very systems that once sought meaning from them.

Through a multidisciplinary practice encompassing painting, installation, and sculptural intervention, I confront this saturation of media as a demand for proof. Dopamine Era: From Freedom to Formation seeks to reassert a sovereignty of perception—an unmediated right to observe, to articulate, and to create outside the coercive logic of digital spectatorship. Expression, I propose, need not be calibrated to be valid. It need only be unclaimed, unfiltered, and wholly our own.

Version III
But I’m only one person. This is my lens—my own thread of thought. What you see, and how you give it form, is yours to claim.

About the Artist

Born in 1990 in Taipei, Taiwan, Shirley is a visual artist whose practice began with painting and expanded into sculpture and installation in 2025. She embarked on a life journey shaped by a deep curiosity about the world’s diversity and interconnectedness. After graduating from Taipei University, Shirley set out to experience the world firsthand—from participating in rural Japanese festival in a graveyard honoring ancestral spirits—to sipping cup after cup of excellent Macchiatos in Kosovo. After having lived in Australia, Japan, and New Zealand, and venturing through four continents, she is currently dividing her time between her native Taiwan and Canada.

Her experiences living among diverse cultures continue to shape her artistic language, which explores the multifaceted nature of human societies and their environments. Through a blend of realism and illusion, her works evoke a sense of both disorder and underlying cohesion, inviting viewers to contemplate the contradictions and the connections that define our world.

Shirley’s artistic philosophy revolves around stimulating introspection and dialogue. It does not seek to provide definitive answers but rather to provoke thought on the nuances of perception.