Practising

In Practising (2015-2018), Cheng Yen Pheng creates a tapestry out of sandpaper, wire, and thread to encapsulate her journey as an artist and as a mother. Using material and process, Cheng reflects on, and responds to, the challenges of raising a child as a single mother. The varied textures of sandpaper represent life’s sorrows as well as its joys, the rough patches made smooth by gentle gestures. In the creation of this large-scale work, Cheng found the laborious piercing and stitching of the thick paper fragments had become markedly easier over time, a metaphor for the important lessons slowly pieced together through the experience and continuous practice of living.