Works from the Soft Wall series, 2023

London-based artist Ning Cheng’s series Soft Wall presents surreal, quirky, and poetic images that rely on mundane objects and spaces. She creates temporary sculptures by transforming everyday things, invoking a sense of play. From a foot insole on stair edges to stacked gloves in a sandy void, a house of cards on a street sewer, face masks floating in a sink, and a clump of lit candles, each image offers instability, a sense of peculiar movement and suspense that challenges our perception of balance and order found in unexpected spaces. These sculptural objects are informed by superstitions the artist had and the self-made rituals she would perform, as both stress release and source of comfort, subtly shaping how she would navigate her daily life.

Through her lens, Cheng transforms private and public spaces into sites of imaginative intervention, inviting viewers to reconsider how our inner struggles and thoughts shape our daily lives.

Presented in partnership with Booooooom.