Tess Ma
As Chinese characters and idioms are presented through the use of embroidery on clothing and various fabrics, artist Tess Ma works are wonderful manifestation of her subjectivity as a female and an artist, as such, there is a great liberty and personalized symbolism in her art. At the same time, her creative idea is to inscribe words containing traditional Chinese cultural values on the surface of her selected objects with contemporary western attributes, which continues the interest of Chinese literati art in the early 20th century for the choice between Eastern and Western cultures.
Tess explores a style by writing Chinese idioms and famous sentences on pebbles, bookmarks and even ice cream sticks. The style is a synthesis of womanly identity, combining classy Chinese quaintness with a refined minimalism, with a back-to-nature clumsiness and a nod to the Taoist values of "taking nature". In terms of characteristics, artist Tess Ma works combine the Eastern taste for the aesthetic basis of the physical nature with the Western standpoint for the sensitivity of the concept. She chooses objects of concern from different contexts such as life content, nature content and western contemporary social content, and then inscribed her favorite beautiful words and sentences from traditional Chinese culture on the objects from America that she chosen - this is her fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetic characteristics.
Since childhood, Tess Ma has been living in Guangzhou, a city that enjoys the advantage of moving boats, and has been exposed to foreign cultures and art. This influence from childhood can be seen in many works of Tess Ma. As the artist believes that the core of creativity is to be free from tradition, to desire inner freedom, and to seek living out oneself. The passion and freedom in the character opens a pattern in art which is to combine art with recyclable waste products into environmental protection objects, for awakening people's awareness to nature and environmental issues. The raw materials of Tess Ma's works are the full utilization of the waste, such as stones, fallen leaves, empty glass bottles, old clothes, popsicle sticks etc. Ma Tess's understanding of life provides a great diversity and variety of her works, as she often claims when talking about her art: it is calm and perfect in the endless changes.
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