Inspired by Chinese ink

An installation work, titled Seeing Mountain As Mountain, by artist Ma Wen at the Ink Studio in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

She won an Emmy as an associate producer for the NBC broadcast of the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony in 2008.

In 2013, for a short while she used interactive technology to light up the Water Cube, or the National Aquatic Center - the main venue for the Olympic swimming events in 2008 - every night in different colors, reflecting the mood of the people in Beijing.

Earlier, in 2012, she exhibited her installation, Hanging Garden in Ink, at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, which she envisioned as her conversation with the plants and ink. The 20-meter-long, 3-meter-wide and 8-meter-high piece was a tableau of 1,500 live plants painted in black Chinese ink, leaving only the flowers in vibrant colors. The lower half of the tableau consisted of real plants that mirrored the top half of the installation, creating the effect of a garden's reflection on water.

"Every artist tries to find their personal style. For me, it is Chinese ink," says Ma. "I've been working and living abroad for decades, but, after all the artistic experiments I have done, I returned to Chinese ink, an important element of traditional Chinese culture."

Her exhibition at UCCA in 2012 also inspired Ma to create her first opera production, Paradise Interrupted, which premiered at 39th annual Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, South Carolina, in May 2015.

In 2016, it was performed at both the Lincoln Center Festival in New York and at the Singapore International Festival of the Arts.

In 2018, the opera will be staged in Taiwan.

The 80-minute production, with Ma as director and visual designer, is an installation opera which weaves the myths of the Garden of Eden and the Peony Pavilion together. It also mixes the 600-year-old Kunqu Opera with contemporary Western opera.