Cindy Ng Sio Leng
Born in Macao, Cindy Ng Sio Ieng lived in Taiwan from 1997-2006, before moving to Beijing where she has been based since 2007. She has won several awards for her ink/water video installations including the 10th “V-art” International video-art Festival (Italy). Her major exhibitions include solo exhibitions at Today Art Museum (2007 Beijing, China), Seattle Art Museum ( 2007, U.S.A), 2005 Ju Ming Museum (Taiwan), The Taipa Houses – Museum (2004 Macao), 1996 Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Taiwan). She has participated in major group exhibitions including Flower of Chaos video art exhibition Veneto Videoart Archive (2010, Italy), The 6th Annual Chinese Making Waves Contemporary Art Exhibition (Taiwan, 2009), Athens Video Art Festival (2009, Greece).
Cindy’s works expand painting, paper, explore concept of ink in motion. The flow of ink over the canvas and water creates a symmetry between the manipulated movement in her paintings and their natural shifting into mountains and valleys. The abstract character of shifting shapes meld together and separate again to simulate a naturescape.
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Zen and the art of motion: Video transcendence from Sio Ieng Ng
by Steven Vroom
In keeping with a commitment to showcase the best contemporary Asian new-media art, the Seattle Asian Art Museum [SAAM] is featuring "Ink in Motion," a five-minute video installation by Sio Ieng Ng .
Set in a large, capacious gallery, the video projection is flanked by artifacts from Ng's previous experiments. Sitting on a bench, in that darkened room, the viewer is transported out of time and space into a luminous state. Ink floats across the screen at a stately gait with the eddy of positive forms commingling with the pure light of negative space. Ink no longer remains a passive medium for the artist. Years ago the routine of washing brushes became an illuminating moment when she observed the beauty of ink draining into the sink. It is through these everyday actions that great art is born.
Sio Ieng (Cindy) Ng was born in Macau, then a Portuguese colony, in 1966. In the early 1990s, she studied etching at the fabled Slade School of Fine Arts at London University. While in London she also studied Chinese painting and calligraphy from the incomparable collections of the British Museum. She has won several awards, including the best printmaking prize from the Academy of Visual Arts of Macau in 1992, and the Honor Prize of western painting from the Third Biennial Art of Macau in 1997. Her work has been shown in the Today Art Museum in Beijing, Taipei Fine Art Museum and the Dadao Museum, Taiwan and the Orient Foundation Gallery in Macau.
Josh Yiu, Foster Foundation assistant curator of Chinese art, was reviewing portfolios of artist's work when, as he writes in the introductory catalog essay, "I have never heard of Sio Ieng (Cindy) Ng before her portfolio arrived at the Seattle Art Museum. Like many portfolios that came before, Cindy's portfolio included an artist's statement, a CV, and a review by a critic.
As usual, I skipped the credentials, and looked for the art. I played her video art titled 'No Limit' on my computer. The moment I saw ink flowing slowing across my computer screen, I was captivated by its simplicity and rhythmic power."
Every element in this piece is carefully composed and chance is but another brush in the artist's toolkit. Sit through at least two cycles of the piece and you will appreciate the poetry of motion and the sublime tidal flow of ink moving across water. What makes this work so elegant is the lack of theatricality, which plagues so much of contemporary video installation.
The "Flowing Poems" are artifacts of the concept of ink in motion. They hang on the sidewalls like predella panels to a new media triptych. The ink on canvas and the ink on photo works serve to illustrate how the artist can control the process if she so chooses to do so. Look at these works after you have viewed the video installation.
"Ink in Motion" moves the viewer into a meditative state. Meaning in this work is attained through meditation, self-contemplation and intuition. The artist has provided a perfect environment for the viewer to go on this journey.
As the leaves begin to fall all over Volunteer Park, you will find an aching symmetry between the motion of ink and the movement of the natural progress of autumn. As your mind wanders, the closeness of artist and nature will emerge. This is a personal voyage you will not want to miss.
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