Shipping To and Fro
Qin Fengling
秦凤玲
Production date
2006
Object Detail
Media
acrylic on canvas
Measurements
diptych 120 x 180 cm
Notes
Watching her husband Wang Luyan manipulate paint in his studio, Qin Fengling became interested in colour, texture and form. She began to make art in her own right in 1985, with Wang Luyan’s support and encouragement, at first painting on any available surface, such as paper or newspaper. She began to use her domestic experiences of cooking and baking, applying these skills to painting prolifically in an idiosyncratic self-devised style, manipulating the plasticity of acrylic paint to create sculptural figures and objects crowding the surfaces of her canvases. Gradually Qin developed a technique that lies halfway between figuration and abstraction, and halfway between painting and sculpture. By 1985 she was painting seriously, but she still describes her practice in terms of domestic work such as baking: ‘A typical housewife transforms these influences using egg and sugar and turns them into biscuits. In my case I use acrylic paint and they become paintings.’ In Shipping To and Fro Qin’s interest in society and the social forces that impact the lives of Chinese people is evident. A cargo ship loaded with new cars bound for China sails in one direction, while a ship flying the Chinese flag stacked with hundreds of tiny people sails in the opposite direction. A wry comment on a continuing diaspora? Qin Fengling prefers to leave her intended meanings a little ambiguous, but she is a sharply observant social critic.
Accession number
2006.049