WHAT
The exhibition is the NY-based Chinese-Canadian artist’s first Hong Kong solo show. With her distinctive blend of historical reference and symbolism, she paints a world of contradictions, where grandeur is laced with disquiet, authority is performative, and where the artifacts of the past resurface. The Empress Dowager Cixi is a lingering presence, woven into the silk of imperial robes, the weight of lacquered jewellery boxes, and the shifting spaces of the dreamlike compositions.

WHY
Empress Dowager Cixi – the de facto ruler of China from 1861 until her death in 1908 – is a figure long debated in historical narratives. The artist does not seek to reclaim Cixi, but instead uses her as a lens to explore power, femininity, and the ways in which history is mediated and mythologized. These works invite viewers to reconsider who controls the telling of history and how power is both framed and obscured.