Wild Lilies

Wild Lilies departs from the temple iconography that dominates Liao's better-known series and falls under the 'Birds & Flowers' tag, a category that overlaps with the East Asian kachō-e tradition Liao first encountered during his graduate study at the Tokyo University of Education in the early 1960s. The wild lily (野百合) carries specific weight in Taiwan: the Formosan lily is a native species and a recurrent emblem of Taiwanese identity, used most prominently in the 1990 student-led Wild Lily Movement. Liao's mixed-media handling — combining intaglio line, silkscreen color, and the textured surfaces he favors — places the flower within his usual vocabulary of flat, emblematic forms rather than treating it as botanical illustration. As with the 'Gate' and 'Festival' series, the subject is approached as a cultural sign first and a natural object second. The print extends Liao's project of drawing modern printmaking out of Taiwanese material culture, applying the same compositional rigor to a botanical motif that he applies to door gods, lanterns, and ritual offerings.