Mimi Zheng | Deposition

Artist Statement

Mimi Zheng utilises plant material, such as wood, roots, leaves and bark and through heating distillation, refines the pigment into becoming a medium for her artistic creation. Mimi then uses silk to display her works, not only because of the lustre of silk itself but also because silk carries a particular history of cultural interaction between Chinese and Western civilizations.

Using plant dyes to layer different colours and to develop colour gradients is a difficult process, and often beyond the artist's control. However, it is through the unexpected and uncontrolled effects of this process that Mimi generates works with symbolic and abstract elements.

By extracting pigments from plants and trees, and then layering and dying on silk, Mimi’s has created works of interesting, abstract landscapes, and she hopes that through these works, viewers will dive deep into these landscapes and perceive a deeper value of the beauty of nature that lies hidden under the surface.

Artist Bio

In 2005, Mimi graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, majoring in decorative art design. In the same year, she studied animation art as a postgraduate student at Hunan Normal University. In 2007, Mimi went to Seoul, Korea as an exchange graduate with Sangmyung University to study visual arts. After graduating in 2008 with a Master’s degree from the Academy of Fine Arts, Hunan Normal University, Mimi taught at the university until 2015 and then began her own research into fabric dyeing as an art form. In 2016, she moved to Melbourne, Australia to continue her artistic creation. In 2021, she held for first solo exhibition of her silk-dyed artwork at the Polaris Gallery in Melbourne. In 2024, she participated in the "OSCILLOFORMS" themed exhibition at the Project 8 Gallery.