Lipstick feminism

Through the use of Chinese ink and paper, and images strongly suggesting the feminine world, I question masculine power. Traditionally, Chinese ink painting was a solely male playing field. The literati Chinese official class decided the theme of the painting: mountains and rivers, or landscapes, which represent their philosophy of harmony between nature and man. Through their art, they aimed to illustrate the splendid images of the imperial country. These landscape masterpieces are imperial China’s official art collection from the Five Dynasties (907 AD) through to modern times.
Instead of representing virtue through the traditional Chinese fashion, I choose to express and illustrate femininity with contemporary, unconventional images. My mountain and river landscapes become interlaced lingerie; the ode to heaven and earth become an ode to sensuous, hidden and inescapable “yin”.

—in Hong Wai, artist: “I bring the contemporary woman in Chinese ink painting”
by SOFIA MARGARIDA MOTA – AUG 21 2017, Hoje Macau

Flying Mary

Hong Wai (born 1982) is a digital artist and Chinese ink painter based in Paris and Macao.

She drives ink painting to a new frontier, that of the mysterious feminine, though the technique has been originally confined to a masculine universe for centuries.
Her doctoral studies are on the deceased ink painter Wu Guangzhong.