Encounter
2024-2025
19*320cm 10 pieces
Currency, pain relief patches,
gauze, mounting debris, etc
Encounter is this series that conveys my comprehension of "emptiness". Rooted in the form of traditional Chinese handscrolls, each work retains its mounting sections to bear symbolic meaning, whereas the central painting panel is hollowed out.
Suspended one after another within the space, the pieces overturn the traditional way ancient people viewed scroll art. Audiences are allowed to walk around the works rather than look straight on. Through the empty center of each scroll, viewers can see people and scenes moving behind it. The scroll mounting becomes the very field where I present my ideas, creating a tense dialogic tension against the hollow void.
The mountings are made of various materials: currencies from different countries, pain relief patches, gauze, medicinal plasters and band-aids, as well as portraits of emperors. These items stand for primal human desires and the struggles imposed by social structures. The solemn classical form forms multiple ironic layers against these fragmented, deconstructed symbols, showing a sharp contrast between appearance and inner reality.When viewing the works, audiences are granted endless possibilities to reconstruct the blank center in their minds. The hollow space is both an untouchable collision of thoughts and an illusory intimate connection.
Created from local Chinese cultural context and resources, Encounter is an experimental body of work that renews traditional Chinese artistic language for contemporary times. This approach is not shaped by Western perspectives, but a genuine reflection and recognition achieved from the spiritual dimension shared by all humanity.
