Light/Line 光 /線

Machine sewn cotton thread on transparent fabric,112x217cm, 2008, at the Hong Kong Arts centre 30th Anniversary Exhibition, Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2008. The work captured the light source from the window at the ceiling of the space.

Visual Veil Series 2003-2009: The series investigated the influence of western culture in the context of Hong Kong. The idea of self-strengthening/determination is examined in the experimentation of transparent fabric and simple sewing techniques.

....Stella Tang Ying Chi's intensely stitched textile artwork, "Hanging Veil", also conveys a focused approach to transformation of materials. In this work, Tang machine stitches every which way across sheer fabric until the lines produce an irregular tight grid, a mosaic of light and opacity as if abstracted from a stained glass window. In a city whose history is tied to the global textile industry, where many middle-aged women have worked in garment factories, an excess of sttiching is both a luxury and a testament to women's uncelebrated past. This work, part of her "Visual Veil" series, symbolizes power relations between those who see, those who are seen, and those who work behind the /(without being)seen. In this practice, with everyday materials and its egalitarian implications, "sewing is intimate resistance to external forces". Such work hold the impluse for interactivity and indeed Tang's textile works also take the form of wearable art in cloaks and capes.

- by Carolyn Cartier, “Hong Kong and The Production of Art in the Post/colonial City . published in China Information for a special issue on Gender and Culture. Volumn XXII, Number 2, 2008, p260.