From 1993 to 1996 I employed a more narrative and symbolic style in my performances. In 1997 during the performance Fen.Maliuming in Breda I started to experience the relationship between a performance and the audience, and also the accidental events that can occur during the process of a performance. Stemming from this concept, I carried out similar
performances in many countries, each time adapting to the situation and to the surroundings of the performance space. In 1999 I let Fen.Maliuming sit and sleep twice (just a performance), inviting the audience to press the shutter of the camera themselves and have their picture taken with Fen.Maliuming.
In China, “Fen” is a feminine name, with the same pronunciation as the character for “separate.” I combined “Fen” and “Maliuming” to create a new name so as to separate the character from reality. In 2000 I let Fen.Maliuming really sleep (Fen.Maliuming took a sleeping pill before the performance). This performance gives even more space to the audience and emphasizes the presence of an abstract quality. All these interactive performances have been recorded with video and photographs so that they can be shown to a wider audience. In this way I can say that the
performances where the character Fen.Maliuming appears can be
taken as whole.
— Ma Liuming


Selected solo exhibitions: 2001: Q, Tokyo; Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm.
Selected group exhibitions: 2002: 2nd Pingyao International Photography Festival, China; Korean and Chinese Painting, Art Center, Seoul; 2001: Translated Acts, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin/ Queens Museum of Art, New York; Hot Pot, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo; Boys and Girls, Upriver, Kunming, China; Nude, Wood Street, Pittsburgh; 2000: Fen-Ma Liuming in Jakarta, JIPAF 2000, Jakarta; NIRW2000 Performance Art Festival, Düsseldorf/ Essen/ Münster, Germany; 3rd International Performance Art Festival, Bangkok; Figures: Another Side Of Modernism, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York; Utopia, Rogaland Kunst Museum, Norway; Our Chinese friends, ACC, Weimar; Chinese Performance Art, JGM, Paris; Manly, Art in General, New York; 1999: 48a Biennale di Venezia.