Sometimes I will look at the back of the thumb of my right hand, and see an artery clearly pulsating. The dark complexion, the numberless subtle ridges spread and become a network. Under this totem is the flow of life. The pulsating represents my very existence at this exact moment. 

Bella thinks that humans are very similar to plants. Every single part of a creature represents a part of the whole being. She likes to be with plants and do something with them. When staying with the flowers in peace, she can feel them, and desire to caress them. Red flamingo flowers (Anthurium), decorated with earrings, standing against a stark black background, is the first photo of the collection, presented in a new visual interpretation, the flower as a symbol of two-gender coexistence. At the start of the project, Bella did not realize the photo's sexual connotations but the subconscious desire implied truly expresses Bella's self. 

In fact, she has always followed her own instincts, naturally creating works, with many of them associated with dreams. She dreams about certain scenes and then represents them through photography. The female body has always been Bella's creative subject. Originally, she used scenarios and costumes, but recently she just presents the body in its purest form, using body parts and movement, so as to reveal inner emotions. That shows her expressional willingness to blend body and plants. By not emphasizing the female body she keeps feminine characteristics undefined, thus setting the conceptual idea free and open to viewers’ interpretation. In doing so, she is not curtailing thoughts or perceptions, but just getting rid of the feeling of attachment to a certain perception or space. Through this openness we come to discover that, we actually are not confronting anything, but let it happen naturally, without insisting on verifying, but merely to ‘feel’ the experience. 

On the outset of her artistic pursuit, Pui Cheng wanted to record the world, so she chose the medium of photography. The tone of her photos is mostly blue, which for her is a color giving off a feeling of self-healing. Without loading her works with too many texts, she likes to shoot the grass on wall seldom noticed by people. It grows improbably in the crevices of the walls, or out of the clean iron sheets; the creepers contrasting with a pure, blue sky leave her in awe: how can nature grow out of the crevices of man-made products. Pui Cheng likes shooting female characters, which becomes her creative focus in her career. As a person liking nature and purity, she pondered on how to present this side of women's body. She did not design a specific scenario; she invited the female model to go buy flowers with her, producing flowers in the naked gaps of the body. This subconscious matching of flower and body is precisely to transform the vitality in the (bodily) cracks into the symbiosis of the purity of youthful skin and beautiful flowers, thus showing a kind of openness and acceptance by stealthily exposing the private parts under the flowery cover. Coincidentally, Pui Cheng and Bella took photos of the female private parts and flowers in the same period. This may prove that all creatures have an inner vibration frequency that influences each other: similar frequency and same-minded people are thus attracted to each other. 

This time, I present the two photographic exhibitions by two women in the name of Women Art Series, using "Light Elegance" and "Slender Grace" as their respective Chinese titles, with all the four Chinese characters starting with a radical "female" . In doing so I intend to look at gender issues from women’s standpoint, while also allowing viewers to grasp the concept more clearly. It can also be construed as a kind of classification. In the long run, I would like to continue to explore the concept. Things are just getting started... 

Si Wun Cheng, Cora
Curator