The featured artists Bonnie Leong and Kitty Leung are sisters. Born and raised in Macao, they moved to Canada more than 20 years ago. Due to the COVID, they are unable to travel to Macao for the exhibition. They sent me their charming works, in a light, large paper container. On the thin printmaking papers are patterns of different plants and animals. The works present a variety of printmaking techniques and collages and each part is full of details and textures.  Big room is needed to completely unfold all the works for a careful look.  Although the artists are unable to return home and grace the exhibition, their works are set up according to the space of the At Light Art Gallery, Macao. Exhibits are shown in a simple way, just as the exhibition title A Path to Return indicates – presenting their path to return in a visual form without any embellishment.

The whole series, taking Nature as the keynote, connects people, and inner feelings. The artists used unique techniques to express emotions, gentle and subtle sensitivity, by pieceing together natural elements. Flowers and grasses waving gracefully and butterflies dancing, Mother Nature has her own rhythm. Cycle. Regeneration. One for all. Blending with Nature, we can feel calm and relaxed, the infinity, emptiness and fullness. The exhibition gives off a quiet, spirited feeling, and is filled with deep love. The work Fragrance, with bright orange contrasted with white, features on the paper full of semi-three-dimensional flowers layer upon layer that bloom freely, allowing visitors to smell the fragrance visually. The orange piece highlights a picture of a dress, which Bonnie and Kitty pressed directly from one of their mother's favorite dresses using a printmaking machine, conveying their impression of the beloved mother in a simplest and most direct way. Here, clothes reflect personality, while orange stands for warmth, brilliancy, happiness and energy, and flowers are used as the medium/source from which fragrance symbolically comes from.

Wish, in the centre of the exhibition venue, is a work created with 300 mixed media paper-made, lifelike butterflies. They are placed together in suspension one by one, as if dancing with joy before the viewer, who can choose to look from afar or appreciate close up. Each butterfly shows a distinctive pattern and color, having a different paper thickness. And the thin papers will curl up outwardly over time, as if doing different poses at rest, vividly. The artists use the butterflies to represent the uniqueness and existential value of each individual and to express blessings to their deceased parents. There will be an extended space for interaction with the work, where visitors can pick up a butterfly that gives them the most feels, put it in the palm, and express a silent wish to a person they think of at that moment. This interactive work connects Bonnie and Kitty with their parents. Who’s that person in your case?

A Path to Return constitutes a spiritual journey. The collection entitled Cherishing, Love, seems to be drawing the conclusion. The works are lit up by lights filter in through apertures created with their skillful use of the needle. The process was both creative and healing. Abstract light spots reveal blurred human heads and caressing hands that make you feel intense love and giving. The artists are expressing their inner feelings implicitly. They mean to convey to the viewer a kind of atmosphere, and a feeling towards the work and the exhibition at large.

Cora Si

Curator