Gallery rosenfeld is pleased to present C a sculpture by Wengio Wong, from her ongoing series Garden of Escape, Fountain of Furor. The work will be on view from April 3 to May 10, 2025, offering a rare opportunity to engage with Wong’s complex visual language, which explores cultural hybridity, material memory, and poetic cartography.
C embodies a convergence of cultural hybridity, material memory, and poetic cartography. This sculptural work reimagines calligraphic form through a fusion of Taoist Cloud script aesthetics and the English alphabet, transforming written language into a traversable metal structure—a “walkable poem” that invites contemplation of transcultural dialogue.
The material composition interrogates Macao’s layered identity as a site of colonial collision and architectural syncretism. Papier-mâché—embedded with fragments of Chinese and Portuguese newsprint—intersects with concrete and chunambo, a historic mortar of oyster shells, gravel, and brown sugar once used by Portuguese forces to demarcate territorial borders. This amalgam echoes the city’s baroque dissonance, where European, Chinese, and vernacular casino architectures coexist.
Surface textures further evoke transhistorical tensions: a patina mimicking aged bronze alludes to the 16th-century Folangji swivel guns, artifacts of conflict and adaptation. Following China’s victory at the 1522 Battle of Xicaowan, these Portuguese cannons were reverse engineered, their replication symbolising both technological exchange and the paradox of boundaries. Through material and form, Cinvestigates the fluidity of cultural and geopolitical divides, rendering legible the residues of collision and coalescence.
Wong’s latest series explores the intersection of mythology, history, and contemporary displacement. Garden of Escape, Fountain of Furorreflects on the psychological and physical architectures of escapism, drawing inspiration from Tao Yuanming’s Peach Blossom Spring and Homer’s Lotus-Eaters. The sculpture incorporates Fu Talismans—traditional symbols of protection and healing—further anchoring its exploration of shifting meanings across cultural contexts.
Born and raised in Macao during its transition from Portuguese to Chinese sovereignty, Wengio Wong works across sculpture, installation, and video to examine the evolving nature of identity, history, and collective memory. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with First Class Honours from RMIT University, Australia, and an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, UK. Her accolades include the Harlow Sculpture Town Artist in Residence (2024-25), the Gilbert Bayes RCA Award (2024), and the 8th Orient Foundation Art Award (2019). Wong has been recognized by institutions worldwide for her ability to weave historical narratives into contemporary artistic discourse.