Tzung Hui Lauren Lee

Lee’s practice is rooted in a respect for materials and the history they carry. For her works on paper, for example, Lee often makes the paper herself, pulping and panning a wide variety of fibres, from cotton and hemp to kozu. Lee is interested in how these fibres contain genealogical traces of their ancestors and how, accordingly, they can be used by the artist to explore her own ancestry. Born in Johannesburg, Lee’s mother and father hailed from Beijing and Taiwan, respectively, and the material cultures as well as spiritual philosophies have served as major inspirations.

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Notably, the material to which she returns most often is sumi ink. Sumi ink is made by mixing soot––specifically, that which was burnt in prayers––with animal hide to create an ink stick. This process has been used to make the ink used by calligraphers in China from as early as the Shang dynasty (11th century BC).This spiritual and historical weight lends meaning to Lee’s compositions, which are often ethereal and abstract. Lee calls it “physically drawing with meaning.”

Lee often renders her images digitally before translating them to drawing, embossing, or etching. These renderings often resemble clouds. Clouds, saysLee, are an embodiment of Qi, the vital force that, according to Chinese cosmology, flows through all living things. Qi can also be translated as vapour, breath, or air––reflecting the subtle but nevertheless dynamic movement of Lee’s compositions, a process she describes as “the energy of seeing, which transitions through your body to your hand that depicts the work––that is creativity to me.”