But I do love lotus. In respect that it is not contaminated even growing in the muddy pond, and does not seem seductive even being washing off in clear water. The stalk is empty in the center, while the external is straight without any vines or branches. The farther, the more clear aroma. Standing upright in the water, dignified and authentically. It can be only appreciated distantly but not touched irreverently.

Extract from Zhou Dunyi’s Love Lotus essay, 1071 AD

Love Lotus Essay is inspired by Chinese scholar and philosopher Zhou Dunyi’s poem “On the Love of the Lotus” (1071 AD). He used the Lotus flower as a metaphor for the “Ideal” person…an anthropocosmic view of human nature, ethics and the authentic self. The Lotus flower grows and flourishes in mud while remaining pure and unstained.

For this series, Cheng works in multiple layers with her images: she combines painting with Chinese text handwritten in Japanese pigments, and includes Chinese “chops”-an ancient means of identification and signature- on black and white silver gelatin photographic prints. Her work and process achieve something new from intangible aspects of things and times from the past. Cheng pays homage to the timeless ideas and images that continue to inform her work. She references conceptual characteristics of art and life in the manner of Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings or Zhou Dunyi’s writings.

Love Lotus Essay #1
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #2
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #3
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #4
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #5
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 24”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #6
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 24”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #7
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #8
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #9
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #10
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #11
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #13
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Love Lotus Essay #14
Silver Gelatin Print
20” x 20”
$1500

Chung-Ping Cheng
Chung-Ping Cheng graduated from National Taiwan University, where she majored in History. She spent much of her years absorbing millennia of art works and artifacts at the National Palace Museum. In the U.S., she took intensive art and photography courses, pursuing her interest in art and photography. Cheng is among a new wave of Chinese photographers to re-introduce aspects of China’s considerable aesthetic heritage within contemporary photography. Cheng’s work was included most recently in “Women in Photography in LA”, presented by Contact Photo Lab, in the Photo LA event, and also in a solo exhibition at the 1839 Contemporary Gallery in Taiwan.