Punching (WIP)

Punching is Jingwei’s new project exploring the phenomenology of mark-making—where language, body, and material converge through time. Using a rock as a hammer, she punches words into aluminium surfaces in a durational, visceral process that is both repetitive and ritualistic.

The words peel, shed, and surrender are etched through force, rhythm, and vulnerability—echoing cycles of transformation within the immigrant experience. The process itself enacts harm and healing: the skin on her hands becomes wounded, then heals, only to be opened again. Jingwei remains attuned to these bodily rhythms; the waiting, wounding, and healing are not separate from the work but are its very essence.

Punching confronts the dual power of language—to harm and to heal, to divide and to connect—while grounding these ideas in material resistance, embodied labor, and time.

Supported by Creative Australia and Arts South Australia, Punchingwill be exhibited at the Central Gallery, Adelaide Central School of Art, from 3 June to 11 July 2025.

Photo by Hailun Wang