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Q&A | How this artist transforms historical Chinese symbolism into paintings

New York-based Dominique Fung speaks about her creative journey, Empress Dowager Cixi, and why she wants audiences to leave her show feeling expansive

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Artist Dominique Fung at the Massimo de Carlo gallery in Tai Kwun, Hong Kong. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
Aaina Bhargava

Impulse purchases can cause regret, but for Dominique Fung, that’s far from the case. An accidental click of the mouse at an online Sotheby’s sale led the artist to acquire a Qing dynasty silk embroidered carpet that now serves as an integral component of her most recent exhibition, “Beneath the Golden Canopy”, at Hong Kong’s Massimo de Carlo gallery.

Dominique Fung’s works showcased at her most recent exhibition, “Beneath the Golden Canopy”. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
Dominique Fung’s works showcased at her most recent exhibition, “Beneath the Golden Canopy”. Photo: Jocelyn Tam

Initial panic at her purchase eventually transformed into satisfaction. “I just bought a Qing dynasty carpet. How insane is that?” says Fung, recalling the shock she felt when the auction house declared hers the winning bid. “I’ve never bought anything at auction, but I remember seeing it and I think it was meant to be.”

At Massimo de Carlo’s Tai Kwun space, the carpet is placed on a slightly elevated platform. Tones of crimson and amber dominate. “They said it was at the Summer Palace, and Empress Dowager Cixi could have possibly walked on it,” Fung says with excitement. The protagonist of Fung’s new body of work, Cixi was a controversial historical figure. She joined the Qing dynasty court as one of the emperor’s concubines and was known to rule the imperial kingdom from behind the scenes after the emperor died, leaving their young son the heir to his kingdom.

While invoking Cixi’s past, the artist revisits her own history. Of Shanghainese and Hong Kong heritage, Fung was raised in Canada and is based in New York. Her evocative paintings are filled with symbolism from Chinese history and folklore as she reinvents narratives of figures once fetishised in the West. Her work highlights overlooked themes and characters, particularly female ones.

A wooden box sits on the Qing dynasty carpet that Dominique Fung bought at an auction. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
A wooden box sits on the Qing dynasty carpet that Dominique Fung bought at an auction. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
“Cixi ruled from behind what was known as the yellow curtain, and that’s what the yellow tones of this painting refer to,” Fung says, gesturing towards Yellow Silk Screen (2025), one of the large-scale canvases installed in the gallery’s first room. The work is a diptych, one half bears a warm amber tone and depicts a seated body dressed in elaborate garb (referencing Cixi) underneath an expansive tent, while the right half has a cooler green overtone, and features fish (a motif Fung often employs) emerging from the tent, perhaps to enact the empress’ orders and do her bidding. Alluding to the inner and outer worlds – of Cixi, the Forbidden City and the artist’s own – Fung questions what is and isn’t visible.
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Describe your work in three words

Amber, excavation, collage.

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