Resetting

The visual sources for my paintings largely come from everyday life or the objects in my art studio. They begin as the interchangeable relationship I have discovered by juxtaposing two objects: repetition allows the objects to be isolated from its inherent context, for it to constitute abstract spatial forms on the imagery.

I have extended other ways of pairing in my later works: the paper cups appear as a series of circles within the rhythm of the colors on canvas, the geometric forms aligned at different types of angles of displacements, the geometric elements extended from cubes or spheres become the visual tools for dividing and structuring the imagery. The shape of the book under rhythmic repetition and covered with colors, its symbolism became ambiguous, while the liaison to the gesture of turning the page made in the course of viewing gives the sense of a fluid consciousness.

In Beats, the tied up balloons are divided into single fragments, presented as independent yet related visual elements, for which the overall meaning of the imagery is placed in the open structure of the gathered and the escaped. Before I pieced the artworks together on paper, I would design the “format” of the imagery based on the senses I’ve gathered from the object, including the pairing between the dimension of each piece of paper with the details. The context and narrative of the image hence unfold onto the surface of the painting, for me, this approach releases the potential for sensible experiences while the image and content are being deconstructed.

I have not eliminated or distorted the image of the object in my painting in order to tailor to the expressionistic requirements of a certain style. The process of painting often conjures the certainty of the object and the uncertainty of one’s sensibilities, a tug-of-war between the specific compositions and abstractions, and eventually, the outcome of the image is a balance between the two. I’ve preserved the contradictions between these dualities, which are real to me.

The black circle is a recurring visual element in this exhibition, which serve different purposes on different works of art. Overlapping Spheres is an imitation and replacement of Model: while I portrayed the hollow plaster torsos, my eyes at the certain moment caught the sensual and voluptuous tension over the bulging abdomen, this sense was accorded to a pictorial structure on my mind, so Overlapping Spheres is a response to this momentary sensation.

For Illusion, around the emphasis of the contouring curves of the spheres, I’ve divided the imagery by the mirror plane with a gray area, this monochrome negotiates and compresses with the black to generate a visual movement.

Mind Room, the series of works on paper in small dimensions, the spheres are deployed as tools and placed in the space divided by the light. All the visual elements on the imagery are conjured here, like the heart of a human body. Among the works in Mind Room, I appropriated the shadow of a human figure as a metaphor for the painter’s presence, which visually articulates my relationship to the pictorial space on canvas from a distance. These recurring pictorials vocabularies, as the basic means of communication, string together a number of my senses, instincts and the everyday encounters in shaping the potential psychological experiences.