Xinyi Zhang
Throughout my work , I have explored the fleeting nature of beauty , hoping to capture the transience of natural forms and the balance between life and decay . I set my focus mainly on the forms of flowers , which often bloom for days or weeks before withering . There is a certain irony in painting or drawing flowers , which counters the natural order of decay and transformation . By immortalising a specific moment in its bloom , I reflect not only the fragility of its beauty , but also the human desire to protect what is fragile and to keep what is impermanent .
In my ink drawings , I hoped to capture the moments of full bloom , when they bear their petals in full and teeter on the precipice of death . While the thin lines express delicacy , the juxtaposition of black ink on white paper emphasises the duality of nature and the harmonious coexistence of beauty and decay . I developed my theme further by creating an oil painting of burning roses , where the flame imposed on top of roses creates an unsettling transition from delicate , vibrant petals to ruined and withered ones , then the violently bright flame . I wanted to highlight the way the decay of one beauty makes way for another .
The roses outside a building in a school , the rhododendron in a driveway , the bluebells next to a park bench . These are things which often go unnoticed until they wither . I do not want the beauty in nature to elude me , and so I capture the moments I see with the stroke of a brush or the scratch of a pen , knowing that next time I look upon the same space , what I saw once might be something else .