Shuyi Ma: Nowhere Land

Artist: Shuyi Ma

Curated by Jinning Chai

SOOFA SUHE is pleased to present “Nowhere Land”, a solo exhibition by emerging artist Shuyi Ma, featuring works created between 2025 and 2026. For many artists, the true beginning is rarely a clearly defined path. It is more often a state still in formation—uncertain, unstable, yet continuously unfolding. Shuyi Ma’s practice exists within this moment of emergence. Rather than producing visual records, she searches within the flow of perception for experiences that can take form, gradually anchoring her own language through material experimentation.

Wax forms the core of her practice, often combined with materials such as casein, plaster and felt. Through repeated cycles of heating and cooling, these materials generate structures that remain fluid while retaining the possibility of transformation. In her works, material operates not only as a medium but also as a response to its own physical condition. Experiences that are not directly depicted often surface indirectly within the work, revealing their associations only when revisited.

Situated between painting and sculpture, her works appear almost as if they have grown rather than been constructed. Most are around thirty centimeters in scale, encouraging viewers to move closer and observe with care. Within this modest format, layered accumulations form structures that approach an architectural density, allowing fragile materials to gain stability through stratification. In A GLIMPSE, a folded, skin-like surface encloses a green cavity opened by heat, exposing what appears to be an interior landscape. It may also be read as Shuyi Ma’s own interpretation of The Origin of the World.

Wax melts at approximately 60°C. Stable at room temperature yet pliable when heated, this property forms the generative logic of the work. Ma’s practice brings the physical behavior of materials into close alignment with psychological structures. The surfaces resemble geological strata: through sequences of accumulation and covering, new layers embed themselves within older ones, allowing the present to physically enter the past. Time here is no longer metaphor—it becomes structure.

The exhibition title, “Nowhere Land”, refers to a terrain that resists precise definition. It can be understood both as a physical site and as a psychological field. Elements that cannot be fully named yet remain perceptible gradually take shape. Across these shifting landscapes, a language not yet fully articulated begins to emerge—already present, quietly awaiting recognition.