Sex, shoes and silk might seem a reductionist description of Beijing-based artist Wei Peng's work, but these three words encapsulate the qualities that make her paintings so timely.
For her first exhibition in Hong Kong, opening at Plum Blossom gallery on Friday, Peng will present a series of more than 30 ink paintings of silk robes and shoes under the title Embroidered. Although Peng's renderings of imperial court costumes seem like a throwback to traditional Chinese motifs of serpentine dragons and cherub-like monks, her paintings haven't escaped nuanced and even psycho-sexual readings.
'A friend of mine saw my paintings and instantly thought the shoes were connected to sex,' says Peng. 'While this wasn't my original intention, shoes and feet have long been connected to sex and seductiveness.'
Some of the standout pieces in Embroidered are paintings of small, singular shoes, like those worn by Chinese women into the 20th century to encase their bound feet. The diminutive bound foot was a focal point of sexual desire, unrivalled by even a woman's decolletage.
Comparing how these silk shoes displayed a woman's status and how the modern stiletto invites certain sexual connotations, it's little wonder some viewers of Peng's shoe paintings might find their thoughts drifting towards sex. Peng says she doesn't want to force an easy, albeit provocative, interpretation. 'I'm not trying to tell them anything in particular,' she says. Women's art invariably elicits sexualised interpretations, she says. 'If a woman decides to paint shoes, people come up with this interpretation. But if a man paints them, they won't.'
Plum Blossoms has its own take on Peng's art. The press release for the show reads: 'By making a contrast between modernism and traditionalism, Peng is trying to search for the loss of our cultural identity in today's society.'