Notions in Motion

A pensive, emotive painter portraying the modern, mechanical world, Christopher Ku labours to blend science and the subconscious. Jan Kot reports

CHRISTOPHER Ku believes he has found his own unique language through his artistic creations. Perhaps that's why, when he finally speaks, he's a little lost for words. "My job is to paint, not to explain," the 43-year-old grumbles in answer to queries about his work.

Ku always remains calm, a quality reflected in his subtle and mysterious oil paintings, which are on show at the Nokia Gallery in his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. However, it is not easy having a conversation with him, unless you share his philosophy on life.

Questions are often answered with other questions. What is painting? What does it contribute to the world? What principles does art hold? Who is an artist? Who isn't? Where am I? Who am I?
 

Ku poses such queries, drifting in his thoughts and thinking aloud. His square, black-rimmed glasses make him look more like a scholarly bookworm than an artist who sets his emotions free through his work.

But, Ku's paintings are not about emotions, he insists, "they're notions". To Ku, painting is not an emotional process, but a scientific one.

"Art is a language that should say more than just beauty and functionality." he insists. "It should be seen as a reflection of our existence as human beings and elevate us to a higher level during the process of [personal] evolution."

With thoughts like these swirling in his head, he lashes on the paint until it becomes almost three-dimensional. Ambiguous forms stand out starkly upon a background of warm red, green or orange, immersing the viewer in the quiet depths of an oceanic universe.

Not everyone can understand the language of this universe, but as difficult to interpret as it may be, Ku insists on "speaking" this way with a persistence that took root long ago.

Born in Hong Kong, Ku was sent to Britain at the age of 19 to study business. Instead of following his parents' wishes, however, he ended up with a diploma in art and design from Scotland's College of Commerce. The defiant act displeased his parents, who promptly withdrew their financial support. But Ku did not break. He worked, scrimped and saved his way through an intensive programme of art studies for the next nine years.

In 1988, he graduated with honours from Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen, Scotland, and in 1990, he obtained his master's degree in drawing and painting from the Royal College of Art in London.

Along the way, he collected one award after another for his work, including a Royal College scholarship.
Adopting bold Celtic forms, Ku's paintings are a mixture of symbolism, surrealism and realism, combined with influences from works by Picasso and Chinese painters.

Christopher Ku, opposite top left, uses a mixture of symbolism, realism and surrealism in his paintings.
His works for the Time And Being exhibition feature molecules, arrows and mathematical symbols
"What you see with eyes doesn't always reflect the reality, because the so-called reality is often produced by our conscious [mind].

And this [conscious] world, including ideas and dreams, is far beyond our real existence." Ku struggles to resolve the dilemma of human existence in this mechanised age of science and technology. His language replete with symbols of organic origin.

In his paintings, we see molecules lined up in patterned chains of chemical energy. Here and there are scattered directional arrows and mathematical symbols. He also uses claw-like shapes that can either be the transformation of Picasso's bulls or fragments of Chinese characters, or both.

This half-understood language of the unconscious mind is sometimes prominent, sometimes fading amid a backdrop of dreamlike colours that convey space and depth.

Is he trying to jar us out of reverie and force us to speculate with him on the possible mutations of life in the future? Or does the painting show a vortex of writhing, tormented forces locked in mortal combat? Or is he reminding us of the godlike forces of cosmic energy that may save our souls?

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Let your own imagination take a free ride. After all, we are all think philosophically now, just as Ku would want.

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By Jan Kot