Nancy’s “Clothes”
Angeline Oyang OAM
Community Ambassador
Art Gallery of New South Wales
22 Jan 2012
I grew up in Hong Kong in the fifties. I have a strong affinity with Nancy Ma’s images and her memory as a little girl from Hong Kong.
As a child from Shanghai, on arrival to Hong Kong, I remember seeing the bamboo poles jutting out from the verandahs of old buildings in Wanchai, or rather almost everywhere in Hong Kong. I remember the clothes hanging on them to dry, a feature of Hong Kong, just as I remember the red-tiled roof tops of the Sydney Harbour when I sailed in as a wide-eyed student-to-be. Nancy’s “Clothes” reminds me of clothing hanging on a pole outside of Chinese apartments in Hong Kong in those days.
Nancy’s “Clothes”, whether it is Her Clothes, Her Life, 2007 or My Clothes, My Life, 2009 carry the Hong Kong stamp. To me, her “Clothes” are the clothes from the people of Hong Kong, hanging out, waiting in the sun, for the city environment to dry and cure them (for they collect the city’s grime as well). They are then worn as civilized badges denoting the status of a citizen of Hong Kong. They have modern embellishments. They represent the transformation of humanity, hanging, waiting to be decorated and designated to a status within a specific cultural and social environment.
Nancy’s “Clothes” conveys the convergence of the East and West, a denotation of the past and present, feudal and modern, joy and sadness, and significantly, optimism for the future. Most importantly, they are Nancy ‘s story, expressed through her art.
Using a similar notation as Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian, Nancy communicates her own experiences, as well as experiences of her sex : as a child, as a young woman and as an artist living in Australia. Her story is colourful, at times sad but never pessimistic.
In a similar mindset as people of Hong Kong, Nancy communicates hope. Her artwork uses colour, texture, material and images to convey life’s opportunities, her own adaptability, versatility and her aspirations for the future.
Nancy’s Her Clothes, Her Life, 2007 is a view of the world typical of the aspirations of the Kong Kong middle class women: they look for beauty, femininity; they are hard working; they are social butterflies, they are brand-names chasers (I Wear LV, 2007). They are the ultimate consumers. These women may not be aware that they are still wearing the remnants of Qing style clothes and bearing the burden and badges of the feudal society. (The British colonial government, showing recognition of the local culture, at that time, still followed the Qing laws of allowing legal status of concubines.)
Nancy’s art form reminds me of the Hong Kong of the 50’s. It shows a tentative but fascinating encounter with the West, and it remains simple, nascent, bearing the characteristics of the Chinese late Qing style.
In Buddhism, there is the word “Nng” (Cantonese pronunciation), it translates as ‘the awakening’, or the acquiring of awareness. Like Adam and Eve’s sudden social awareness of shame, Nancy was not aware of the concept of discrimination and sexism or feminism until she comes to live in Australia. This is when the pain, the grief and the sadness dawned on her.
Centuries of socialization and indoctrination conditioned her mother’s treatment of Nancy, the eldest daughter in the family. Like mothers living in the world of Jane Austin, her mother knows of only one, singular path of social mobility- by marriage. Nancy’s mother’s desired goal for Nancy was to marry a rich man so that she can have an easy life. This was similar to actions of mothers of a previous era who forcibly wound their daughter’s feet and crush their growing bones in order to secure a better future for them. The intentions were good. The mothers surrendered to the dictum of a woman’s destiny: to become a desirable wife to a man from a matching or better social class and live a good life.
In My Clothes, My Life, 2009 Nancy tells her own story as a girl, as a young woman in her family in Hong Kong. The sadness of having to housekeep and look after siblings instead of going to school, and be disciplined for harbouring such a desire. Education was not recognised as a path to upward social mobility in the post-war Hong Kong.
The colour, the choice of material and the motif of My Clothes, My Life, 2009 all give clues to the artist’s personality and her outlook in life. The use of pure, white uncontaminated clay, is the consistent backdrop of her story. The clay with imprints of life, have to undergo high temperature firing, so that it becomes strong and resilient. The clothes have to bear the colour of the day. Never mind a few pieces that had broken down in the process. Perseverance is the key. Determination is the engine. These are the life tests Nancy had passed and passed brilliantly. Life experiences dotted her white background, colours give them meaning and symbols give them emotional sustenance. The aesthetics are thoroughly modern.
The colours Nancy has chosen are bright, beautiful and modern. Even the armour is shiny and benign and the broken light bulbs are not menacing but inviting (Don’t hit the light bulb when fighting with your sister, 2009). Instead one becoming electrocuted, one is receiving light. Instead of being killed, the armour becomes a protective shield (The Armour – protect me from beatings, 2009) The armour becomes a unifying bond between a brother and a sister.
The butterfly perched on her shoulder (Flying with me - He lives inside my heart, 2009) commemorating her father’s death in “My Clothes, My Life, 2009” evoke the Chinese philosopher Shaanxi’s butterfly, a beautiful dream of transformation. It denotes the sense of togetherness and not the sadness of the parting. The use of peony, a symbol of richness, wealth and glory is very traditional symbols of joy.
Nancy’s artwork displays fundamental conservatism, her value of the family, and her belief in the future. Her peace with the society she lives in, where-ever that is and her love of her family. They are the reasons why she says she is a woman-ist, and not a feminist. She does not want war or justice. She wants love.
With her years self-funded formal education, her determination, her diligence and her strategic moves, Nancy has arrived. She has found her identify in the 21st century.
