Intricately Woven, Lipont Gallery, 2023

Artist Xiangmei Su (苏向) lives in an era where the natural climate is changing drastically, the economic direction is accelerating, and human productivity is making great strides. New energy, new materials, 5G communications, artificial intelligence, etc. are taking mankind into wider unknown areas. As the other wing of human society, art will inevitably develop and evolve with the pace of science, technology, and economy.

 

From witnessing her grandmother using wooden looms to make traditional textiles, to observing the mechanical assembly line in her father’s factory, to creating her own contemporary art and becoming a full-time artist, Su uses her talent, wisdom, and personal immigration experience to create unique works of art. She passed through Suzhou, a famous cultural town in China, roaring contemporary industrial cities, and arrived in Canada, where the cultures are intertwined. Painting, installation, and fibre material art have transformed into new extensions and connotations in her hands.

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The lines in the Intricately Woven Series of paintings are clear in latitude and longitude, sparse and orderly, exquisite, three-dimensional, and unpredictable. They bring our sight into the profound spatial dimension and inspire us to explore the essence through phenomena. The maze-like “factories,” “workshops,” “parts” and “units,” and other contemporary industrial images she depicts with single-toned lines make us stand in awe of the great wisdom and productivity of mankind, and at the same time make us realize human insignificance. We have conquered matter and improved efficiency, so where will technology take us?

 

In her installation works, she uses canvas as a two-dimensional medium and uses pins and threads to carefully weave three-dimensional works on the surface of the canvas. This series of works are neither textiles nor paintings, but installations that utilize fibre materials, light, colour and space. Through the artist’s special perspective, social productivity transforms material into brand new things in a specific environment.