Suling Wang's paintings address concerns relating to her identity and location as an artist in an attempt to move towards a new kind of abstraction. Fluid, calligraphic and cartoon-like forms are superimposed on others that are suggestive of trees, stems and rock-like structures. Imaginary crags and overhangs, tiered mountains and submerged islands all overlap in planes that impart depth and create rhythmic, but occasionally disharmonious, patterns. These meticulously detailed layers are built up on a diaphanous ground, which is characterized by sweeping strokes of colour that flow in and out of the visual field.
The individuality of this language has developed out of the artist's own sense of uncertainty regarding her placement within Eastern and Western cultures. Influenced by an understanding of the world based on the oral traditions she experienced in her childhood, there is a strong sense of history in the paintings and the geography of the island is a recurring theme. Sometimes an engulfing downpour or waterlogged world is depicted, representative of a place in a state of dissolution or flux, continually being changed by environmental forces. The images appear to fragment as quickly as they emerge and become strangely rendered and dislocated like shards left behind by a tide or floating as cultural debris. The viewer is encouraged to consider the origin of these forms and to become engaged with the creative process by employing the same playful invention that the artist experienced in their creation.
