Paternal Grandmother
50cm x 60 cm, oil on canvas, 2023-2024
Raised by her paternal grandmother during childhood, the artist regards her not simply as a grandparent but as the person who shaped her understanding of love, resilience and home. In November 2023, a vivid dream of losing her grandmother awakened a profound sense of fear and urgency. Shortly afterwards, the artist learned that her grandmother had become critically ill and immediately returned home to care for her. Fortunately, she recovered, and this experience became the starting point for the work.
The composition is constructed from the symbolic framework of her grandmother’s birth date, interpreted through the Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, Yin–Yang and the Five Elements. Unlike the flowing forms that characterise much of the artist’s practice, this work is built from bold, angular shapes, reflecting the strength, determination and unwavering spirit of a woman who, even in her eighties, continued to cultivate the land every day with remarkable vitality.
More than a portrait, the work is an expression of gratitude to the woman who raised the artist. Through an abstract visual language, it celebrates the quiet heroism of rural women whose lives are defined by endurance, dignity and unconditional care.
Maternal Grandmother
60cm x 80cm, oil on canvas, 2024
Created in memory of the artist’s maternal grandmother following her death in 2024, this work honours the life of an ordinary woman whose quiet resilience was shaped by extraordinary hardship. Living through profound social and historical change in twentieth-century China, she endured poverty, illness, loss and the lifelong responsibility of caring for others across generations.
The composition is structured using the symbolic framework of her birth and death dates, translated through the Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, Yin–Yang and the Five Elements. The small square forms that fill the surface correspond to the major life cycles and annual phases associated with her lifetime, transforming the passage of time into an abstract visual rhythm. Colours carry symbolic meaning rooted in the Five Elements: black and grey evoke death, absence and the unknown, while green suggests life, renewal and hope.
Rather than documenting a single biography, the work stands as both a personal memorial and a tribute to the countless women whose lives have been marked by sacrifice, resilience and care. Through an abstract visual language, the artist transforms grief into remembrance, offering compassion, gratitude and a blessing to her grandmother and to all women who have endured similar lives.
