Touching the Veil - Prints and Illustrations by Caitlin Cali and Samantha Ng

Caitlin Cali and Samantha Ng explore what it means to touch, and even peer, behind the veils separating worlds. Raised in Hong Kong, Ng portrays impish demons and fiery ghosts that writhe and cascade across rice paper surfaces. These printed works are emblematic of ancient Chinese and Japanese woodblock techniques, but they also showcase the artist’s western cultural influences. In one untitled print, a snarling tiger emerges from swirling clouds; in another, pitchfork-wielding devils gesture to an enormous fish. While Ng mixes symbols to explore the feeling of living in between Asian and American cultures, Cali’s gauche and watercolor vignettes touch the veil between the worlds of the living in the dead. The body of work she is showing at City Hall has helped her transform the intimate experience of her mother’s transition from one of struggling to confront a fearsome monster, to that of living with everyday hauntings. In “Floating with a Ghost” a figure with a face in its chest perches on a sentient cloud; the moon and sun peer down as an ethereal specter rises up through a storm of tears. Cali says that working through her personal relationship to death has been scary, but also liberating; sharing it in her work helps her remain brave and eager as she faces the world.