2026: Ongoing Series

Referencing the healing powers of jade talismans and tablets, this ongoing series depicts manifestations of my birth parents and processing my adoption. Having never met them or even knowing if they are alive, they exist in my thoughts as ghostly mythical creatures; the foo dog. Foo dogs are traditional symbols of protection for buildings with significant stature with the male holding a ball and the female with a cub under its paw. In these works I am emphasising physical segregation yet "spiritual" connection between my parents; we once existed in this world together.

Fables. September 2025

Group exhibition at Mall Galleries with Swanfall Art.

girl talk <3

April - May 2025 | 6 x hand cut papercuttings stretched over wooden canvas frames, 135gsm coloured paper | Dimensions (each): (h) 50cm X (w) 40cm | Garden of Peach, Chorlton and Saan1, Northern Quarter.

As my connection to the East Asian/ South-East Asian (esea) community in Greater Manchester grows, there is evidently a shared experience of sexism and fetishism through receiving  inappropriate comments from ignorant perspectives (typically male and western). 
girl talk <3 encourages people from the esea community who have received comments, like the six on display, to open a dialogue and reclaim power, something which has been imbalanced for many years. For those outside of the esea community girl talk <3  invites you to reflect on comments such as these and the effects it may have on people who receive them. 
I have combined the traditional artform of papercutting and ink painting to search for a balance between the feeling of aggressive comments and motion of cutting paper with delicate and communicative femininity.
Special thanks to Alecia, Apapat, Deborah, Emma, Hathaikan and her sister, Jade and Zhen for taking part. 

Strange Faces in the Mirror Exhibition

Hong Kong Cultural Community at Saan1, Manchester, March 2023.

Cold Memories of Hong Kong | 2023 | Acrylic and Ink on Canvas | 80 X 30cm and Reflection of Duality | 2023 |Blue Pearlescent oil-based Ink on Rice Paper | 80 x 30cm. 

My impressions of Hong Kong are drawn from a variation of old photos and videos of my parent’s visit in 1994 alongside memories of myself and my family in 2004 and 2007. Though we had a lot planned and were in the heart of such a vibrant city, there was an underlying sense of sorrow for both my trips. After being in Thailand, 2004, after the Boxing Day Tsunami hit the coast, we went to Hong Kong in attempt to finish the holiday on a better note and secondly, having white parents and not dressing or behaving like the locals meant we stuck out.  From these cold thoughts and feelings, I reference images and motifs from the family photos, creating a hazy and almost sad tone to such a busy and beautiful city.  Responding to the brief, provided by Manchester-based Hong Kong Community Culture, of producing a 'self portrait' of ones culture, having been born in China and adopted into a white family, disparity between being 'British' and 'Chinese' has been an ongoing subject I wished to explore.
By only using my two stone seals, each showing my first, Jasmine, and middle name, Su Juanyan in both English letters and Chinese characters, I wanted to visually depict the melancholy and fragile state of cultural duality. 

Woyou: Wandering Whilst Lying Down

2022 | Acrylic and ink on Fabriano 200gsm Paper, Wood and Rope | 300cm X 35cm

For thousands of years, landscape painting sat, and continues to sit, atop of the painting style hierarchy in China due to its refined associations with scholarly studies and religion. However, traditional Chinese customs limited women’s opportunity to delve into this fine art and were therefore left out of the inner art circles.

This work aims to pair the feminist dystopian with the title of this piece; a Chinese phrase that expresses the act of visualising idealised landscapes. By deploying its great size and monochromatic shades of pinks, this hand painted scroll acts as a soothing testimony of the deeply embedded injustices that lie within gender binaries that has (and still is) affected Chinese and East/South-East women in the art world. 

 "Take your Chinese and shove it up your ass, you chinky pig" 

2021 | 7 Ivory stoneware with tin shiny glaze and cobalt oxide on 7 MDF plinths | Varying sizes.

 Being born in China, and growing up in the UK, cultural diaspora has allowed me to perceive the ongoing xenophobic and racist arrogances towards the Asian community through both the Eastern and Western eye. These feelings of being othered, alienated and fetishised have left me to feel angry and ambitious to speak out. Referring to traditional Chinese craft allowed me to explore the dichotomy between the beauty of the forgotten Ming Dynasty ‘Moon- flask’ vase, an artifact of an antiquarian context, and the internal need to confront those who inflict physical and emotional pain onto myself and the Asian community. The vase’s figurative form acts as a reminder that the issues my work challenges are nothing but human ignorance. My work aims to alter the perception one has on traditional Chinese craft and the messages it can potentially hold.