Created By
Wai Hong
Ink and color on silver Xuan paper on wood
Curator
Luke Chapman
The controlled dripping technique at the base - a hallmark of contemporary Chinese ink art - suggests the vertical rhythm of traditional landscape scrolls, while simultaneously evoking modern abstract expressionism. Here, Wai demonstrates her technical prowess with ink pigments, allowing them to create natural gradients and textures that would be impossible to achieve with other media. The red seal created by the artist in the lower right corner serves as both a traditional artistic marker and a contemporary punctuation mark, bridging classical Eastern artistic conventions with modern sensibilities. This addition really captures where Wai begins her exploration of transforming the intimate into the monumental. What's particularly compelling is how the ink pigments interact with the paper's surface tension, creating subtle variations in tone that suggest both depth and ethereality. Through this masterful manipulation of traditional materials, Wai establishes the foundational elements that would come to define her landscape series - the transformation of the personal into the universal, the intimate into the topographical.
L'origine du Landscape (山水之源) by Hong Wai represents a masterful confluence of traditional Chinese ink artistry and contemporary feminine expression. This pivotal work, which inaugurated her celebrated landscape series, demonstrates the artist's virtuosic command of ink pigments - not watercolor as some might mistakenly assume. The rendering of the lace-adorned form employs a sophisticated layering of ink pigments, achieving a deep indigo-noir palette that echoes the refined aesthetics of Ming dynasty blue-and-white porcelain. The intricate lacework patterns, executed with extraordinary control of the ink medium, transform intimate apparel into topographical meditation - each delicate line and shadow creating an almost cartographic effect.
Created By
Wai Hong
62 cm | 24 in
2015
