With a background in Chinese painting, I have developed a deep understanding of traditional culture. This practice-based research explores how tradition — often seen as authoritative and controlling — can be reshaped through creative practice. Instead of rejecting tradition, I aim to engage with it critically, embracing its techniques while opening space for uncertainty and discovery.
In China, the national joint art entrance exam, officially implemented in 2010, reflects a continuation of the exam-based education system rooted in the imperial civil service exam. While efficient, this system reinforces uniformity and control, reducing art education to technical training and limiting opportunities for creativity and independent thinking. Within such a structure, students are expected to follow fixed paths with no room to ‘get lost.’
My project questions this rigidity and explores what might emerge when we allow ourselves to lose control. Using Chinese ink, watercolour, glue, plaster, and layered paper, I observed how materials behave beyond my intentions. The size, texture, and absorbency of paper — along with the unpredictable flow of ink and folding patterns — became active agents in the work. Rather than designing a perfect visual outcome, I embraced the physical traces left by the process; wrinkles, stains, and accidental marks. Together, they trace a path that unfolds without a fixed direction, full of quiet disruptions and moments of chance. Rather than relying on mastery alone, I invite the unexpected by allowing materials to speak, shaping the work through both knowledge and unpredictability.
My project questions this rigidity and explores what might emerge when we allow ourselves to lose control. Using Chinese ink, watercolour, glue, plaster, and layered paper, I observed how materials behave beyond my intentions. The size, texture, and absorbency of paper — along with the unpredictable flow of ink and folding patterns — became active agents in the work. Rather than designing a perfect visual outcome, I embraced the physical traces left by the process; wrinkles, stains, and accidental marks. Together, they trace a path that unfolds without a fixed direction, full of quiet disruptions and moments of chance. Rather than relying on mastery alone, I invite the unexpected by allowing materials to speak, shaping the work through both knowledge and unpredictability.