Painting I Sculpture I Cardboard
A city is hauntingly beautiful and deeply personal.
My urban landscape practice explores the relationship between people, architecture, memory and the places we call home. Through painting, sculpture and discarded cardboard, I transform the visual language of the city into layered stories of connection, confinement, movement and renewal.
THE URBAN CAGE
Where does a home end-and a cage begin?
My Urban Cage series began with a memory of my first home, Hong Kong, an overpopulated city where some of the poorest residents lived in cage-like homes.
Over time, the cage became more than a physical structure. It became a visual language—a recurring pattern representing the layers of human experience inside the modern city.
In my paintings and installations, architecture becomes memory. A building can feel protective, beautiful, crowded, lonely—or confining.
In 2014, I created my first cardboard installation, Urban Cage. It became the beginning of a recurring theme that would continue through my cardboard paintings and installations. At the heart of Urban Cage is a longing for a sense of home—and the question: What is home? Moreover, what might have been seen as waste became a way to explore the invisible boundaries of our urban lives.
Check out this installation on this video.
- Lani Nelson, Interview, “Constructing Home with Feminine Lines”, Sinovision.
- Lani Nelson, Interview, “Urban Cage-Hong Kong Revisited”
PAINTING THE CITY
Two subjects I am passionate about are landscape and the urban environment. My work explores the moods, memories and experiences held inside the cities we inhabit.
I create many of my paintings on layers of recycled cardboard, allowing the raw texture and imperfections of the material to become part of the artwork. For me, cardboard is more than a reused material. It represents the many layers of human experience within the complex landscapes of our cities.
CARDBOARD AS MEMORY
I compose my paintings on layers of discarded cardboard, allowing the raw corrugated texture to remain part of the work. For me, cardboard is more than a reused material. It carries traces of everyday life—packaging, movement, consumption, homes and cities. I transform those ordinary pieces into another kind of landscape.
Life-size recycled cardboard sculpture
“Urban Queen” wearable sculpture public art.
FEMININE LINES IN A CAGE
Four women. Four Stories of finding home in the city.
In 2014, I collaborated with writer Jessica Lynne to create Feminine Lines in a Cage, an installation combining painting, photography and interviews with four immigrant women sharing their experiences of finding a home in the city.
The colorful cardboard structures became my interpretation of their living spaces.
You can also read the interviews New York City: Its Women, Their Voices.
HOME NOT HOME
HIDDEN FACES
What remains hidden inside a home?
URBAN HARMONY IN SPRING 2022
Fulton Center. New York City
Bringing the urban landscape into a public space, this installation explored architecture, movement, color and the people moving through the city.
THE CITY IS STILL SPEAKING
I KEEP LOOKING
The city changes. The materials change. The questions remain.
