Installations

​

Prairie Dragon (2024)

“Prairie Dragon”, a larger-than-life size creature, is constructed of locally harvested hay bales, corn stalks, mesh, and textiles. The 100 ft long outdoor installation sits on the ground of the Volland Foundation, an art gallery and community space in Alma Kansas. This site-specific Chinese haybale dragon is meant to bring good luck and the harvest for the farming community in rural Kansas as well as a celebration of 2024 dragon new year. It is a true collaboration between the artist and the local farmers. 

 

Continuity (2022)

 "Continuity" in the exhibition “Found in Translation: explorations by 8 contemporary artists” at The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art reflects on the connection between my past and present.  I incorporate figurative and landscape composition and continue using long hair to explore my Chinese identity as well as family tradition that I have passed on to my daughter, like a tree with deep roots growing on adopted land in the American Midwest.  

​

Fall (2020)

Inspired by the prince's bedroom at the Milan Royal Palace, I was touched by the intimate and personal feelings. The natural light from the two big vertical windows reminded me of the waterfall cascading from ceiling to floor, just like the flowing imagery of my long hair. I skillfully blended human and natural elements, using the motif of flowing hair, carefully drawn in thin and silky strands following the Chinese fine style ink medium to express the concept of life-force through a sculptural work in which nature, body and calligraphy merged. This is my first time combining Chinese ink medium with Italian Alcantara material.  There are 4 pairs of hanging scrolls, each pair is double-sided, frontside is the image of waterfall and the backside is a running style of Chinese Calligraphy based on a famous Waterfall poem written by Li Bai.  

​​

Tornado Warning (2018)

This room installation at Haw Contemporary in Kansas City includes ten large paintings (each 3ft wide by 9ft high, acrylic on canvas). They are connected as one single folded Chinese screen painting in a 30ft long half circle.  Inside is a horizontally painted tornado hair image. The audience are invited to walk into the whirlwind of hair and surrounded by the swirling storm. They feel like being inside the moving tornado.

​

Haywire (2012)

My solo show " Haywire" took place at Lawrence Arts Center. The idea comes from my life experiences both in urban China and in rural Kansas.  The horizontal mixed media work “Prairie Waves” represents the open space and the flow of the Kansas Prairie. The room installation “Haywire”, however, reveals the sometimes claustrophobic and chaotic aspects of Chinese urbanization.  The massive electric wires are placed sporadically on the wall and connected to the telephone poles at the corners.  Two charcoal drawings of vanishing electric poles are painted directly on the walls. The commercial advertisements and posters are found on most billboards, available wall spaces as well as telephone poles. These are very real part of Chinese city life.  I attempt to replicate this overwhelmed Chinese urban street scene into a small gallery space.

​

Environmental Study (2003)

This was my first outdoor piece inspired by the beauty of rural Maine. I created this work during my summer residency at Skowhegan in 2003.  I combined an old school desk with falling branches to represent a person’s education throughout lifetime. The stacked branches looked like strands of hair growing from the head (the old desk) and merging into the ground (the green lawn). The found materials are not permanent, so the work also suggests the loss of time and memory.