Water holds a deep significance in Ma Hui’s life. Her early years were shaped by the turbulent waters of the Yellow River in Ningxia, and her later years by the serene canals of Amsterdam. Perhaps this continuity of memory imparts her work with a fluidity that feels both tender and powerful, capturing water’s softness alongside its unstoppable force. Her compositions resonate with a minimalistic strength, where bold uses of blank space and layered brushstrokes create a profound and ethereal visual effect. In her recent works, she uses Pu’er tea as a medium, a choice full of symbolic resonance. Its rich, earthy tones mirror the depths of the Yellow River, and as it gradually seeps into the paper and merges with the ink, it unfolds like the steady flow of time across the surface.
In addition to the tea stains and the traditional grayscale of ink, Ma Hui introduces unique color elements into her pieces. Sometimes, she uses peony blossoms from her garden mixed with cinnabar to create distinct red hues; other times, she burns charcoal herself to incorporate it into the ink, lending it a textured, tactile quality. Her choice of paper also reflects her sensitivity to material. In addition to rice paper, she works on copperplate paper, which controls the spread of water and ink, emphasizing the ink’s sheen. In her Organic Series, for example, Ma Hui uses thick copperplate paper to create cell-like textures within the ink, as though opening a window into a microscopic world of life.
Ma Hui’s ink paintings balance feminine sensitivity with resilience, emotion with intellect. Each of her works embodies an inner strength that flows from her brush in gestures that are gentle yet resolute. The waves and sediment of the Yellow River during her childhood reappear in her compositions like scenes in a montage, forming a profoundly personal river of time, her own cycle of life.
