Waterfall – Lace Calligraphy Landscape Sculpture (瀑 – 蕾絲書法山水)

Curator

Luke Chapman

Hong Wai’s Waterfall is a meditation on the permeability of boundaries—between text and image, tradition and innovation, fragility and resilience. The visible Chinese character, emerging from the lace, is not merely an inscription but a living element: it pulses within the landscape, suggesting that language and nature are inseparable in Chinese visual culture. By using lace—an intricate, historically feminine material—Hong Wai subverts expectations of both medium and motif. The waterfall, a classic symbol of power and continuity in Chinese painting, here cascades in threads and voids, each gap as meaningful as the woven line. The work’s horizontal presentation on a plinth at Volta Basel invites the viewer to look down, as if gazing into a pool or tracing the course of a stream with their eyes. This flattening of perspective is both contemporary and ancient, recalling the handscrolls of literati painters while asserting the artwork’s sculptural presence. Waterfall stands as a testament to the enduring dialogue between calligraphy and landscape, and between the hand and the mind. It is a landscape you can almost breathe in—a place where language becomes water, and water becomes lace.