Sounds of Silence – Paintings of Cindy, Ng Sio Ieng
Ever since the late 19th century, European and American artists have gradually moved away from representing objective images. Since the Second World War in particular, they have totally broken with the boundaries of real images, and migrated into an abstract world that is entirely subjective, subconscious and beyond description. The birth of this artistic style was closely related to the social and political environment prevailing at the time. It also reflected the urgent need of people to discover their own true selves. They hoped to rediscover the internal realities concealed in art in their purest forms. The trend towards abstraction soon swept the entire world, and its stylistic influence began to become apparent in Taiwan by the 1950s.
“Wu Yue” and “Dong Fang” were two art groups established in 1957, and they were characterised by their abstract styles. They stood for what was then the avant-garde art scene in Taiwan, and the effects of their yearning for abstraction deeply influenced the development of the Chinese art community. In the area of ink painting, Liu Guo Song was one of the most significant among his contemporaries, and also the most representative of this style. In spelling out his philosophy of art, he proposed replacing the traditional skill of positioning the brush tip upright with new techniques like frottage, watermarks, paper pulp, etc. He also turned to new topics, such as his outer space recollections, instead of traditional themes of mountain homes and river trips. In terms of implementation, he replaced concrete objects with abstract images, creating a unique style of painting that left room for the imagination. Looking at his works today, we find that the method of abstractionism pioneered by Liu did indeed open up new possibilities in the art of ink painting, which had been gradually become perceived as dull and monotonous. His distinguished style has already become a paragon; but it has not proved to be the ultimate in the development of abstract ink painting. Among the fast-changing artistic trends of the present day, we are glad to encounter in Cindy, Ng Sio Ieng’s works yet another stunning performance in abstractionism through the medium of ink painting.
An Interpretation of Nature
Cindy, Ng’s abstract ink painting began to gain her fame on Taiwan’s artistic scene with her solo exhibition “A Trip Through the Dark” , held at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 1996. This female artist from Macao demonstrates her unique flair through a poetic, relaxed and varied ink-painting style. Viewing her works, one can easily identify the artist’s affinity with the natural landscape and her reluctance to be parted from it. Further clues about this can readily be found in the titles of her works, such as “Mountain Spirits”, “Melodies of the Mountains”, “Green Mountains”, “Voluptuous Mountains”, “Bluish Mountains”, “A Cliff”, “A Clear Spring”, etc. Her special love for mountains and rivers is more than just a personal preference in her nature; it is perhaps more closely related to her fundamental aesthetic outlook.
Mountains and rivers have long been a mainstream subject in the world of Chinese painting. However, that does not mean artists down the ages have lacked a spirit of innovation. Rather, it speaks of the ultimate concerns of Chinese culture as a whole. To Chinese, human beings are temporary objects floating on the long river of time. The poet Li Bai said: “the world is an inn for whatever exists in it; and the duration of time is just like the existence of a one-time traveller among hundreds of generations”. While historical characters have come and gone, only the eternal mountains and rivers have proudly stood by themselves. The old saying “heaven runs incessantly” exactly refer to the eternity of nature. While western civilisations focused on humanism, Chinese culture has been more concerned about the concept of eternity reflected in the river of time.
Cindy, Ng Sio Ieng is not a fully trained art school graduate, although she received some training in etching during her early years. She acquired her knowledge of Chinese classical drawing and ink painting in the British Museum, through self-learning during 1993 and 1994. Thus, she was free to study and recreate Chinese traditional aesthetics and abstract ink painting according to her own wishes, without any burden and guided only by her own taste and findings. In dealing with the subjects of mountains and rivers, Cindy, Ng Sio Ieng discards the shapes of concrete objects. She lets water and ink splash onto and flow freely across huge sheets of paper, as if mountains, gullies and waves have all melted under the artist’s own will, and have been transformed into a series of poetic landscapes of her imagining.
The Moulding of Images
Cindy, Ng Sio Ieng has indeed expressed her internal impressions through many experiments and creations, as opposed to the expression of external landscapes. In her work titled ìInk Travellingî (1998), one can note her in-depth exploration of media and forms, as well as her ambitions. In this painting, which consists of as many as 18 consecutive panels, we can see ink strokes and forms purified by the artist, together forming a mysterious space that tells a kind of story. Beams of weak white light float on a sea of dark ink, moving around like smoke and fog in an indescribable atmosphere. As the panels move on, the white air begins to spread out and disperse in various directions, turning into rising smoke here, and a gush of water there. And after rounds of shifts and imagination, it finally evolves into a string of clear smoke that disperses into the chaos that was seen at the very beginning.
Interpretation is, of course, subject to the viewpoint of each observer. This work evokes endless imaginations and projections, and it shows the sophisticated skills of the artist in manipulating the mood of the drawing. Creation is itself a kind of self-vindication murmured to oneself. During the lonely course of creation, one’s unique psychological processes seek a way to express their true voices, making use of the skills of the hands, hoping that ultimately one be able to hear these voices and resonate with them. Here, Cindy, Ng Sio Ieng intends to surpass all objective images to mould the images of her heart through the most organic and direct medium, ink. Eventually, the flow of ink merges with the flow of life, and they integrate with one another. In the world of art, this is successful self-observation with the highest level of clarity.
The Mirrored Image of the Heart
The latest works of Cindy, Ng Sio Ieng have gradually migrated towards emptiness and formlessness, while maintaining the characteristics mentioned earlier. In her 2003 works, she used relatively small, almost square, canvases and acrylic colour. In this way, she abandoned the rectangular and relatively large sheets of paper commonly used in her previous works. This experiment with new media may offer her new experiences; but her unique gentleness still fills her works from that period.
In terms of subject, the artist has focused again on natural images like mountain ranges, streams and rivers. However, these images have now become even more abstract, after undergoing a process of compilation and contemplation. In other words, although the titles of her works still reflect an intention to represent certain landscapes, the drawings themselves already surpass the monotonous symbols of mountains, streams and rivers (in fact, Cindy, Ng Sio Ieng took a suggestion from Ni Zai Mi and replaced the titles of her works with symbols in a diary). Instead, they convey the artist’s images and feelings through liberal and organic shapes. When the elements in a drawing are reduced to their purest shapes, empty spaces in it become integral parts of the entire construction, and this is a real test of the artist’s use of those empty spaces. Here, we are simply amazed by Cindy, Ng Sio Ieng’s excellent accomplishments. She has successfully turned the empty spaces into meaningful emptiness. As a result, a lively rhythm is seen in the plain, abstract compositions, and rich dark patches take on endless meanings against a pure white setting.
A Brief Conclusion
Looking at the overall development of Cindy, Ng Sio Ieng’s artistic works, we see an artist who constantly looks back and experiments with her own creations, and who chooses the plainest media, the ink, paper and canvas, as the vocabulary of her abstract drawings, with the intention to face directly her own true nature. In the present age, when artistic trends are constantly changing, the works of ink, abstractionism or drawing are all losing importance compared to the contemporary trend towards installations, technology and videos. Nevertheless, the nature of art will always lie in the truthful reflection of our minds and hearts. Whatever methods are used, creativity will be accorded its deserved recognition and value when it attains a certain degree of artistic purity. Cindy, Ng Sio Ieng’s incessant exploration of abstract ink painting and her persistency when it comes to art will reap even greater success, as expected by the world. Sound of Silence the wisest words are silent; the most captivating form is formless. Ng Sio Ieng compresses the feelings of life into the most compact forms, through her expressions of simplicity, ease, purity and silence. A quiet observer with a calm mind will be able to appreciate her subtle artistic feelings, and will perceive the bright future of abstract ink painting in the new century.
Head of Fine Arts Facultyof Donghai University, Taiwan Ni Tsai Chin 2004