ILLUMINATI FINE ART PRESENTS THE SECOND PART OF “PAINTING OF REVERBERATION” - AN EXHIBITION DUOLOGY BY CHRISTOPHER KU
The semantic series explores the future of painting reconstructing the language of abstraction
“In the creative process, excessive precision and control may result negatively. Choosing to let go and allow accidents to take their course reaffirms the existence of beauty. Such is the blind spot of the controlled brushstrokes” - Christopher Ku
Hong Kong artist Christopher Ku's exhibition duology "Paintings of Reverberation'' opened to critical acclaim at Illuminati Fine Art on 24 June. Following its conclusion on 15 July, the gallery presents the second part of its exhibition to be held from 23 July to 12 August, featuring the "Semantic Construction" series. As a sequel to "Reverberation" which investigates the artist's innovative use of materials and traditional symbols to challenge dichotomies, the new series shows the artist's attempt to further develop abstract imagery and break away from the inherent elements of art, resulting in a new visual language that articulates the future and the unknown. The exhibition showcases Ku's diverse oeuvre and highlights his continuous search for self-transcendence while inspiring the audience to explore the possibilities of "painting" as a genre.
The “Semantic Construction” series reflects the artist’s recent state of mind. The painterly surface is charged with freedom, and its compositions are more unruled and abstract compared to his earlier works. Breaking free from pre-existing mentality and frameworks is, in Ku’s perspective, the key to comprehending life, existence and mystic cosmology. The artist has produced a set of a common language with the external world through this body of works.
Conceptions, consciousness, and spirit existed before any languages and imageries were invented, whereas the act of writing and drawing are both significant channels for manifesting the human mind. Beginning with canvases of smaller size, the artist mixes oil-based pigment with water, allowing the watery pigment to flow freely on the surface, creating some original and profound “visual vocabularies”. The unruly process has turned into a systematic, self-referential yet abstract language of Ku’s practice, as if humans struggle to put complex and intangible ideas into words in the pre-civilisation era. The invention of language and image requires an adventurous mind and experimental attitude, which are as well prerequisites for human civilisation.
Semantic Construct-19 and Semantic Construct-21 apply a hard-edged organic figure in the centre of the work, created with organic brushstrokes. The artist takes advantage of the flowy characteristics of acrylic paints to capture and freeze the optimal state of the relevant graphics during a malleable process. In the background, water-based acrylic and oil paints form semi-organic layers created by controlled processes or splashing, flowing, and scraping. Amid the chaotic reality, the artist internalised a unique mechanism and law.
In Semantic Structure-8, the dark background tone contrasts starkly with the flat monochrome shape created by the flowing process. Organic figures and lines are loosely hanging in the picture, indicating a conscious departure from the inertial compositional rules and the old ways of creating. With an acute instinct, the artist organically layers blocks and shapes to create intense visual tension.
Ku believes that "randomness" and "non-randomness" are not mutually exclusive. By contrast, they function best when applied in the correct contexts. The artist's iconic dots, lines and finely fragmented figures are toned dow Semantic Structure - 17, reflecting the gradual transition from his early meticulous style to a more unrestrained and interesting recent practice. With vibrant colours, Ku's recent works display a newly found vitality.
One of the most prominent works in the duology is Semantic Construction-41. A large-scale painting sporting 2.5 x 3 meters epitomises the delicate balance between experimentalism and dexterity. This painting combines various "visual languages" that permeates Ku’s previous series of works created with the transparent coating technique and his recent works with comprehensive abstract elements, bringing together the opposite qualities of "magnificence" and a "carefree spirit". Between the dynamic wave layers, the scattered squares sometimes diverge and sometimes aggregate; the huge translucent volume leads the viewer into a deep abstract space in front of the picture.
Ku's aesthetic oeuvres materialise possibilities created by chanced encounters, allowing different elements to coexist in the metaphysical world in harmony, showing the artist’s ability to manoeuvre different materials. His experimentation without preconditions proves that aesthetics does not depend on individual visual effects or techniques. Only by consciously keeping the creative process alive, subverting one's preconceptions, and breaking free from inherent definitions can innovation result from the ashes of the past. Only then can one re-embrace free will. The exhibition duology "Painting of Reverberation" is a series of debates on canvas, documenting Ku's continuous survey and inquiry into the idea of painting, histories of art, symbolism and narrativity.
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明畫廊呈獻谷敏昭「迴盪・繪畫」系列二部展，打破二元對立探索未知
「我的作品變得像是死後的輪迴，觀望曾經發生的一切，不再有所爭議。後後現代的幽靈，死去而活著，去中心化的漂浮，無重量的輕盈，活在後後現代的存在思覺中，『迴盪・繪畫』也是此個展的主題⋯⋯」
文字並非自天地初開已存在，從無文字到有文字的文明時代過渡，出現過許多文字系統，有別於完整語言的符號有助溝通和幫助記憶，亦因為其相對模糊的性質，而蘊含神秘莫測的魅力。
1957年生於香港的藝術家谷敏昭，擅於透過繪畫探研古今及不同文化的創作模式，如借鏡仿古洞窟壁畫的粉末塗料畫作、體現東方民間藝術智慧的模版、普及的符號及圖案等，以偶發方式營造畫面，體現禪、機遇等哲學概念，作品技法超越理性及符號性之中，著重對物料於創作上的突破。在色彩和抽象符號的巧妙互動下，谷敏昭的藝術語言蘊含對生命、人類生活及存在等議題的思考。
而明畫廊則帶來谷敏昭近十年來最為全面的個展「迴盪・繪畫」，展出藝術家逾三十五幀於2002年至近年從未對外公開的繪畫作品 ，體現他對創作所需的物料運用，以及繪畫手法的突破，繼而展開一連串相應的藝術形式、 符號性及敍事性對話。展覽第一部分「迴盪」系列已於6 月 24 日至 7 月 15 日舉行，而第二部分「語意構造」系列則由即日起舉行至8 月 12 日，追朔藝術家不同時期及創作狀態，對照其於藝術發展脈絡的關注，同時帶領觀者探索 「繪畫」於往後時代的可能性。
以繪畫回應歷史的「迴盪」 系列中，谷敏昭摒棄傳統繪畫單一媒材的運用，採用粉狀等獨特物料，有關材質附以大地色調塗佈於布面上，視覺上或似史前藝術的洞穴壁畫，不囿於地域文化，打破中西藝術在歷史上二元對立的困局，橫跨古今文化，審視繪畫藝術與物料運用的關係，以藝術家特有的創作手法，重新定義當代藝術的可能。
而透過繪畫探索未來的「語意構造」系列，則呈現谷敏昭近期的創作狀態，也可視為他不 斷創新、突破自我的成果。作品在構圖及佈局上較過往更為玄虛、恣肆。藝術家擺脫固有的藝術符號元素，創作過程中建立一套屬於自己未來與未知的視覺語言。谷敏昭認為，當人類嘗試理解生命、存在的意義和宇宙的奧秘時，實在難以套用既定的框架，倒不如適時忘卻所知，故透過這系列作品重新梳理自身與外界溝通的話語。
在谷敏昭的眼裡，語言的形成過程與他的創作脈絡類近，兩者皆是實踐及表達人類意 志的渠道，故視開初人類創造語言的過程為其創作狀態的隱喻，人的概念、意識和精神先於語言存在，也先於繪畫。他將水油物料碰撞配合運用，在畫面上呈現顏料能任意流淌的特性，進而組織出一套具系統性、恢宏的抽象語言，創造出富原創性的「視覺單詞」。
作品上流灑的鮮艷色塊或線條相互重疊，看似輕盈卻迸發出活力，藉着純抽象視覺語彙創造超脫物質世界的渠道。我們邀請你一同參與這場畫布上的思辨，親睹谷敏昭對繪畫、藝術史、符號性、敍事性的反覆思考及叩問。
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CHRISTOPHER KU