Pepper Liu

embryo is a photographic series that explores the loneliness, isolation, and identity drift experienced by young women growing up in East Asian societies. The work examines loneliness not only as a personal feeling, but as an intergenerational condition shaped by culture, family, and social expectations. The images explore girlhood relationships and how they are shaped by complex emotions in which harm and dependence often coexist. This wound won’t heal with time, but its lasting presence carries both desire and repression. Throughout, embryo reimagines East Asian girlhood as a quiet yet enduring form of emotional rebellion.

Pepper Liu is a New York-based photo and video artist whose work focuses on representations of girlhood in East Asian contexts.