A traditionally attired woman is viewed in profile, one limb gracefully extends to reveal neither hand nor fingers emerging from the silk sleeve, a shawl falling along her arched back, her face obscured by the draping garment. Exquisite lacquer technique creates for a mother-of-pearl effect, scintillates and shimmers with a lustrous appeal. A long, jet black swathe of hair falls from her head to cover her entire back, as fluid as the silken dress which reveals traces of traditional, folkloric patterns. The background is a mute, matte black which offers no other details, no intricacy, no designs. Aesthetically, the work resounds with aspects usual in the depiction of either of the great beauties of Chinese antiquity, the technique equally bearing age old elements indigenous to the Orient. Yet, the posture and stance are not within the language of tradition, the image derived from the contemporary dance of the performer, Li Lingxi, who has hidden herself and identity in a charade of appearance and disguise. The work is frontal and beautiful, the position, dynamic and elegant. The work denotes tradition in juxtaposition with modernity, fluidity with aesthetic beguilement. A subdued commentary on the state of the feminine, or rather, visual forms which are used to depict what is perceived as being innately feminine and what is actual is comprised in this simple visual creation. We sense the feminine without a trace of skin or detail of the face revealed. [Rajath Suri]