Ink Diffusion


Born in China to a family of strong artistic background, Cai has grown up in an atmosphere of traditional aesthetics and has received training in calligraphy from her father since childhood. Not surprisingly, she was rather unfamiliar with Western painting until after she moved to Singapore about ten years ago. The immersion in a frontier where various cultures meet put her in an inevitable position in which she had to re-examine her own artistic heritage. It was from that confusing yet challenging situation that her artistic style started to take root. Executed with the traditional media of ink, brush and rice paper in a style of utter simplicity, Cai Heng¡¦s paintings are rarely representational; rather,

they are akin to Abstract Expressionism. Free from the depiction of any forms, the protagonist of her works is the visual power brought about by the interaction between the splashes or brushes of water, ink and colour on paper of various degrees of absorbency. The product can be likened to a visual orchestration of the simplest kind of score played with just a few basic instruments.

Cai Heng received her art education in Singapore and Australia between 1994 and 1997. She is currently a practicing artist and lecturer at the LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts in Singapore. She has exhibited extensively since she was a student. Her works have been shown in Asia, Australia and Europe. Her work is highly acclaimed by art critics.



EXHIBITION: March 13, V 26, 2002

Plum Blossoms (HK) Gallery Press Release
 

Ink Diffusion - this catalogue is published for the first solo exhibition of Cai Heng in Hong Kong. Free from the depiction of any forms, the protagonist of her works is the visual power brought about by the interaction between the splashes or brushes of water, ink and colour on paper of various degrees of absorbency. The product can be likened to a visual orchestration of the simplest kind of score played with just a few basic instruments

32 pages, 13 plates in full colour, foreword by Stephen McGuinness, essay by Bonnie Yeung, soft cover, 2002, HK$180/US$24.