Mile Zero Dance is thrilled to announce the next feature artist! Jinzhe Qiushi’s exhibition Forty Without Doubt: In Stillness · In Slowness is on view now until November 16, 2025.

Artist Statement
“Forty Without Doubt” originates from the ancient Chinese teaching: “At forty, one clarifies the mind and perceives its true nature, acting with unwavering conviction.” “In Stillness · In Slowness” came to me one day as I was painting while listening to the Lotus Sutra. When I heard the opening two lines of the “Medicine Buddha Dharani” in the 26th Chapter “Dharani” — the Sanskrit syllables “Aṇi Maṇi” — I suddenly paused, feeling an immediate clarity within: Life, to me, is about being and settling, dealing with the world in tranquility, and moving forward with ease…

To me, art is itself a form of life, which deeply resonates with what Gerry expressed in the letter for MZD’s 40th anniversary: “Dancing is a living.” I believe this state of being perfectly mirrors MZD’s forty-year journey.

Thus, this exhibition came into being naturally. The scenes and texts in the works are drawn from my encounters in daily life — flowers, plants, trees, animals, diverse people, and all kinds of landscapes. Every being in these paintings holds its ground, exists and deepens, dealing with the world in calm, moving through life unhurried. I am delighted to have this chance to introduce to you, one by one, all these good friends “in stillness and slowness” within the paintings.

四十不惑：安而 . 慢而

“四十不惑”源自中国古训“年至四十，明心见性，笃行不疑”。“安而 慢而”源自有一天，我边画画边听《妙法莲华经》，当听到《陀罗尼品》第二十六，“药师如来陀罗尼”的开头两句梵音“安尔 曼尔”，我突然定住，似乎心中顿时明澈：生活于我，即是存在着，沉淀着，安然处事，从容而行…

而在我看来，艺术本就是一种生活，这与Gerry为MZD40年庆写给大家的信中“舞蹈即生活”，如此契合。我相信，这种境界恰是MZD四十年历程的完美写照。

于是，本次展览应然而生，作品中的景象和文字皆来源于现实生活中我偶遇的花草，树木，动物，形形色色的人，各种各样的山水。画中的每一个生命，都在自己的位置上坚守，存在着，沉淀着，安然处事，从容而行。我很高兴，有缘在这次展览中，将画里一切“安而慢而”的好朋友，一一介绍给您。

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST

ARTIST BIO
Cui Jinzhe, whose pen name is Qiu Shi, is a painter, poet, and multidisciplinary artist who has been painting, writing and practising music since her childhood. Jinzhe was born and raised in Dalian, China, where she earned a BA (Visual Communication) at School of Arts Design from Dalian University of Foreign Languages and a MA (Mixed Media) at Dalian Polytechnic University. In 2008, Jinzhe moved to Canada to continue her studies and work as an independent artist in Edmonton. Her work explores the integration between visual art, poetry, and interdisciplinary practice, often within an interactive public context.

Jinzhe’s creation mainly focuses on three themes: to observe present daily life and nature surroundings, and create paintings and texts inspired by the intuitive imagination and the inner cognition; based on diverse Chinese classical literature or ancient wisdom sutras, to create paintings and texts that combine the ancient inspiration and traditions within her personal contemporary art language; starting from painting and poetry practice, to derive a new contemplative process and artistic experience for self-realization and community transformation through live performances and the interaction with multiple disciplines and diverse audience context.

Experimenting the traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy elements with skillfully rendered images and diverse, decorative elements: details from Buddhist symbols, characters in the ancient myth legend and Chinese auspicious patterns which are built and disassembled within the abstracted, accidental landscapes of ink blots and spills, Jinzhe explores how patterned, decorative elements dissolve into an ink-splashing-landscape. She is interested in constructing a unique, fantasy, and sometimes chaos world which reflects her daily contemplation on nature and life. Encountering images of characters, realistic and fantastic, within the risk of disintegration and destruction, she is examining a new painting language between traditional meditative beauty and contemporary dynamic vitality.

Jinzhe’s legendary figures are at times united and at other times mutated and revealed in their transitory, shifting, and contingent forms. She often derives her painting figures into clay masks, paper puppets or wood installation to construct unique performance space in diverse context with public audience.

Aspiring to benefit all beings through artistic creation, Jinzhe practices to imagine and construct a diverse artistic realm without time that integrates with the presence of contemporary life, the heritage from ancient wisdom, and the manifestation for our future.