Latent Trace
15 May – 14 Jun 25
Realised under the guidance of Lindy Lee, Latent Trace brings together new works by emerging artists Angie Pai and Jingwei Bu. Presented in Sullivan+Strumpf Melbourne’s Preview Room and in conversation with The Silence of the Elemental, the exhibition explores materiality and ritual through distinct yet interconnected practices. These works invite reflection on how form and gesture can hold memory, meaning, and transformation.
sand-cast bronze plate, silk hand embroidery on chirimen silk
51 × 37 cm (without bronze plate)
70 × 50 cm (with bronze plate)
Born 1993, Taichung, Taiwan. Angie Pai is an artist working between Naarm / Melbourne (Australia) and Taipei (Taiwan). Her interdisciplinary practice is underpinned by expanded research in affective neuroscience, Taoist philosophy, and social work, which converge to form meditations on diasporic embodiment. Through experimental film, relief sculptures, textiles, paintings, and public programming, Pai examines transformative potentials catalysed at the intersection of relational psychology, trans-generational memory, and ancestral lineage. Anchored in analytical rigour, her ethos is enriched by experiences spanning the arts, education, design, media, and social science sectors. Guided by an unwavering commitment to educational outreach and meaningful impact, these efforts are dedicated to amplifying the voices of marginalised groups, fostering spaces for generative dialogue and deeper understanding
Charcoal, Iron Powder, Saline Solution, mineral pigments, salt, plaster, enamel paint on wooden panel
116 × 162 × 2 cm
Angie Pai, From mama, 2025, Charcoal, Iron Powder, Saline Solution, mineral pigments, salt, plaster, enamel paint on wooden panel, 116 x 162 x 2 cm.
Lindy’s sun-faded cushions, cotton, silk linen, stainless steel brackets, aluminium plinth, calligraphy from Angie's mother, Pai family heirlooms.
Angie Pai, Breakdown to Breakthrough, 2025, hand-finished sand-cast bronze plate, silk hand embroidery on chirimen silk,
51 x 37 cm (without bronze plate)
70 x 50 cm (with bronze plate)
Much of what we’re taught about perseverance and distress is shaped by clinical approaches that privilege articulation and disclosure. Yet across many lineages, pain is neither spoken nor readily visible. It settles into the body: tension, fatigue, withdrawal. What resists measurement often drifts to the periphery.
These pieces trace cartographies of ineffable inheritance. Attempts to metabolise teachings carried by improvisation and sheer survival. Within systems of recognition – language, neuroimaging – understanding passes through proxies. A residue mistaken for truth. A map mistaken for terrain.
A letter from my mother, transcribed into oracle bone script, gestures toward the pictographic origins of mark-making. A handkerchief once exchanged between my grandparents, remade in chirimen silk – its tensile strength borne of counter-twisted wefts. A worker’s jacket, stitched from Lindy’s sun-faded cushions, predating my time. What began in hesitation became a vessel holding petrified dialogues. We honour those who trial by fire.
These works consider what is absorbed, what becomes legible, and by whom.
Angie Pai, The Altar, 2023-25, Lindy’s sun-faded cushions, cotton, silk linen, stainless steel brackets, aluminium plinth, calligraphy from Angie's mother, Pai family heirlooms.
Jingwei Bu is an Australian-based interdisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and video. Her practice explores cultural hybridity, time, and transformation, drawing from both Eastern and Western traditions. After Living in China, England, Germany, and Australia, Bu sees art as her fourth language and her ultimate home. Beginning with traditional Chinese charcoal portraiture, she now embraces conceptual approaches shaped by her transnational experience. Bu holds a Bachelor of Visual Art from Adelaide Central School of Art, where she received James Martin Award. Her work has been exhibited widely, with solo shows including Shadows of Time (Aptoz Cruz Gallery 2024), Pouring Tea Until It Is All Evaporated (Nexus Arts 2023), and Life Maps (the Mill Adelaide 2021). She has also participated in major group exhibitions such at South Australian Museum and Sauerbier House. Bu engages with endurance, ritual, and transformation through site-specific, durational works across Australia.
tea, water on canvas
102 × 102 × 4 cm
My practice centres on tea— its leaves, water, stains, and the gestures of pouring and waiting — as a visual and philosophical language rooted in the wisdom of water and Chan Buddhist thought. In Chan, tea is a form of meditation: the act of pouring becomes a gesture of offering, while the emptying of cups echoes the letting go of attachments. These quiet rituals guide my process, where materials are not passive but active participants in meaning-making.
As an immigrant of over 20 years, tea carries layered meanings—personal, cultural, and historical. It is a bridge between worlds, and its stains mirror the imprints of memory, displacement, and time. Waiting for water to evaporate, watching marks form and fade, becomes a durational act of patience and longing. Through collage, oil, mixed media, and performance, I let tea’s unpredictability shape layered compositions that invite reflection, presence, and transformation.
tea on canvas, oil paint
102 × 102 × 4 cm
tea on canvas
122 × 76 × 4 cm
tea, copy paper, durational performance relic
26 × 29.7 × 21 cm
tea on copy and rice paper, performance relic
214 × 263 cm
video
SS.MP4
3.48 minutes
Sullivan+Strumpf acknowledge the Indigenous People of this land, the traditional custodians on whose Country we work, live and learn. We pay respect to Elders, past and present, and recognise their continued connection to culture, land, waters and community.