Since 2001, Liu Hui has been working with discarded tapes. The choice of this material was purely coincidental, as the popularity of CDs had reduced the space for cassettes to a smaller and smaller extent. For the "post-70s" and the generations before them, cassette tapes played a very active role in life and learning, condensing rich and complicated information and feelings. In 2001, the artist had accumulated more than one hundred tapes in his hands, although their practical functions were diminishing in the face of the new media. The recorded memories of her personal growth, youth, life, interests, joys, and sorrows have not faded, and it is hard to let them go. By coincidence, the idea of using tapes as a medium for artistic creation was born.
Like other waste materials, magnetic tapes are objects that have been baptized by time and condensed into life. We can see the imprint of life in them, and they trigger emotional resonance. Any civilization is a double-edged sword. Nowadays, human beings have to rely on the overwhelming industrial products on the one hand, and on the other hand, they are wary of and reject the ecological impact of industrial products and the alienation of human beings. Waste is a distillation of the two sides of industrial civilization: it is both a source of ambition and anxiety. There has never been a time when every corner of the world has been filled with waste like today's, making it almost one of the age symbols. Art is a symbol of the times, and waste, involved in all aspects of society, is undoubtedly one of the critical constituent symbols.
For the artist, this material with traces of human artifice will enrich the texture of the work; for the society, besides recycling and throwing away, people find the third place for waste - preserving it in the form of art and giving it a new life, which is undoubtedly an ideal and beautiful choice.