In Furious Bloom II is part of a series of limited-edition art prints created with the Beijing-based gallery INKstudio and exhibited for the first time at the ART021 fair in Shanghai. Stemming from the artist's practice of applying Chinese ink to live plants and landscape, this work is an archival pigment print on Canson Edition etching paper, and features an image from Jennifer Wen Ma's 2010 work, In Furious Bloom, shown at Space 15th in Seoul, Korea as a part of the exhibition Compulsive Beauty.
The exhibition comprised of potted, blooming chrysanthemums painted black with mo, Chinese ink. They were alive for the duration of the exhibition. The composition is wild and congested in places and sparse in others, creating a melody for a lament of love lost. Chrysanthemums, traditionally used in funerals, are a nod to time passed, while the live plants dressed in black ink are also a testimony to the perseverance and power of renewal.
Mo, Chinese ink, has been the main medium for expression and communication for centuries in East Asia. It embodies all colors, emulates all forms, and gives meaning to brush strokes and aesthetic achievements. Concurrently, black is the culmination of all colors and the absence of light. It is also a powerful symbol of void and muteness. In this installation, black ink dominates the artistic vocabulary. Rather than painting flowering plants on paper, the ink is directly applied to the objects, in three-dimensional space, with the fourth dimension being time and change.
In Furious Bloom III Limited Edition Pigment Print
Archival pigment print on Canson Edition etching paper.