Mao Xuhui skillfully juxtaposes his subject and colors to create unexpected compositions. Since 1990s, he has developed painting landscape, and portraiture to still life. Stemming from his sensitivity to lines and form, his recent canvases often feature scissors, a tool which has become his trademark. Scissors are insignificant tools in daily life, yet they can also be kind of delicate possess a hidden agenda of destruction and reorganization, and even represents power. It implicates artist’s great anxiety to social stability, and symbolizes the shattered balance of our routine and normality negated in our life. In the end, scissors have become a true revelation to the artist’s real emotions.

“For some time, I used scissors as a bizarre symbol and pasted them on different scenes of real life as an expression of my anger and anxiety. After a period like this, I pay more attention to the modeling factors of scissors because they can remind people of the functions of scissors. As a matter of fact, now I believe what is important is the shape, or the meaning of shape, or the effect of shape of scissor rather than the discussion of what they are going to cut.”

Recently, Mao’s scissors are softly delineated in shimmering hues of yellow, orange, green-blue or luminescent gray. The light colors remind one of history and the elapse of time. Without complicated and exaggerated demonstration, it seems that those conflicting objects in the artist’s mind eventually find their rational coexistence in the marginal space.