Tiffany Heng-Hui Lee, “Five Elements: Holding the World Together”
by Donna Tennant
Heidi Vaughn Fine Art, Houston
Continuing through October 17, 2026
The five Chinese elements that make up the world — wood, fire, earth, metal, and water — have inspired and shaped Tiffany Heng-Hui Lee’s mixed-media collages and sculptures. Lee, a Taiwanese American, draws on her heritage, her philosophical beliefs, and 30 years of experience to create the geometric abstractions on exhibit.
“Holding the World Together” refers to the interconnectedness of the five elements. When all the elements work together, they create beauty and harmony in nature. These elements form a cycle in which wood feeds fire, fire produces earth (ash), earth creates metal, metal collects water, and water nourishes wood, leading to plant growth. The seasons, compass directions, five shapes, and certain materials are also associated with each element.
For her collages, Lee cuts and arranges pieces of colored paper into intimate constructions that reflect her impressions of nature's ever-changing geography, which she sees as a metaphor for life’s inevitable changes and uncertainties. Her palette is dominated by the five colors associated with the elements; wood is green, fire is red, earth is yellow, metal is white, and water is dark blue.
Lee immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan with her family at age 18. Her father owned a textile factory in Taipei that produced garments, exposing her to fabric, color, and design. They lived alongside rice fields, and she kept chickens, rabbits, and a goat, instilling in her a love of nature. Nature is her primary inspiration, and she is sensitive to the fragility of the planet’s ecosystems, which are cyclical and subject to frequent disruptions, especially in recent years. When the five elements are out of balance natural disasters, illness, and other calamities result. Lee intimates this in her artworks.
Three intricate collages are inspired by Houston’s Buffalo Bayou, the muddy waterway that meanders through the city’s greenways until a flash flood transforms it into a raging river. Titled “Buffalo Bayou Connected” (I, II, and III), they offer a bird’s-eye view of smaller bayous flowing into the larger one. Subtle shades of green represent the wetlands, banks, and greenways through which the water flows. Curving strips of brown and blue depict the water. For Lee, the tributaries flowing into the main bayou represent the diversity, shared experiences, and interconnectedness of the broader Houston community.
Many of the works draw on studies of specific locales, including the Colorado River, the Enchanted Rock formation in Texas, and salt fields and flats in Australia, Bonneville (Utah), and France. “Echoes of the Colorado River” documents Lee's firsthand observations of the consequences of severe drought in the Colorado River Basin, which has created a crisis for people, animals, and agriculture. Narrow blue channels are sandwiched between broad areas of vibrant orange, symbolizing the planet's rising temperatures due to climate change. “Silence of the Reservoir” portrays layers of water, from the silvery reflections on the surface to multicolored shallows to dark greens and blues of the reservoir's depths. The image conveys how water connects us to one another and to nature.
In the series “Stronger Together,” Lee explores the relationship among the five elements, using interlocking squares and rectangles in the colors to give visual form to her belief that only by working together can the chaos resulting from floods, forest fires, hurricanes, and other catastrophic events can be brought under control.
“Shadows of Elements” is one of two suspended sculptures in the show. Five rows of five translucent disks hang from the ceiling near a side wall. Each disk bears the Chinese character for one of the five elements, each color matching its element. The circular shapes also reference a pair of crescent-shaped divination blocks, or jiaobei, wooden divination tools thrown to seek divine guidance, an ancient Chinese ritual that continues into the present. The shadows they cast on the wall behind them remind us that every action we take has consequences and leaves a lasting imprint on the earth.
The second sculpture, “Wu Xing: A Fragile Balance,” hangs from the ceiling at the center of the gallery. Wu Xing is Chinese for the five elements, also called the “Five Moving Ones” or the “Five Types of Energy.” Colored resin squares, each denoting an element, are suspended within five columns of fine silver wire that move in response to air currents. The squares reference pieces of joss (or incense paper) burned as offerings in Chinese ancestral worship to ensure the deceased have all they need in the afterlife. They are also used to pray for harmony in nature, which results in a bountiful harvest. The top of each column contains a crystal; if you have lived a life of meaning and contribution, you turn into a crystal after cremation. This piece conveys both the fragility and beauty of the natural world.
A series based on Texas flowers — Indian paintbrush, bluebonnets, azaleas, and sunflowers — gives Lee a chance to step away from the five elements theme and experiment with other color combinations, including magenta, chartreuse, yellow, and orange. She also introduces curving elements that represent petals and stems, all collaged onto a rectangular base. They serve as a reminder that flowers, which symbolize renewal and resilience, thrive only when nature is in harmony.
In 2020, the artist told Voyage Houston, “For art to possess beauty, it must possess harmony and balance. Beauty, balance, and harmony are inseparable … I hope [it] brings the viewer closer to nature, creating a feeling of peace and joy within.” Lee’s work, in all its forms, does bring us closer to the essential harmony among the five Chinese elements that sustain the natural world.
Donna Tennant is a Houston-based art writer who writes reviews for various publications. Over the past 40 years, she has written about art for local and national publications, including Visual Art Source, Houston Chronicle, ARTnews, Southwest Art, Artlies, and the Houston Press. She has a bachelor of arts in art history from the University of Rochester and a master of arts in art history from the University of New Mexico.
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