Despite the apparent simplicity of some of Cui Xiuwen’s images, the content is deeply resonant. By the early 2000s Cui had turned to video since, to her, it provided greater freedom of expression. In 2004, Cui started creating photographic assemblages, photographs that she took and manipulated in the computer, and printed in large scale.
Entitled EXISTENTIAL EMPTINESS, Cui’s current series introduces a number of new elements. These works are now predominantly monochromatic and refer back to the great tradition of Chinese landscape painting in their restricted palette, horizontal, long-scroll format, and small-scale figures. The focus is no longer on the image of a young girl, but rather on the universal human drama.