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Devoted to the Universal Truth, Artistic Cultivation Manifests
-- Wei Hong Solo Show “Savor • View”
Duration: 2008.9.27 – 2008.10.27
Venue: Courtyard Gallery
Address: No.95, Dong Hua Men Da Jie, Beijing
Opening Reception: 4:00 p.m., Sept.27
On-site Teatime with Wei Hong: 2008.9.27– 2008.10.6.
Reserve a Place for Teatime: 13810081828 - Fu Yuebo, Courtyard Gallery
Weihong’s new paintings are pure and peaceful. The splendid, intense color fields combined with the floating lines provide a massive visual impact. Her works express a strong contrast with the trend in today’s huge diversity and wildness in Chinese contemporary art scene. Weihong brings back to her motherland the most precious spirit with a directness and simplicity long enjoyed in the southwestern light, emboldened with a unique creativity and insight provided by over ten years of living outside of China and immersed in the Western art world. Her new work proves that excellent art works are not held by the eye alone, but penetrate to the inner heart and speak with a timeless message. Therefore, to stand before these painting, one can close your eyes and still feel their sublime presence.
Weihong is one of a rare group of artists who knows clearly about her approach in art theory and applies this knowledge and skill using modern cosmopolitan methods. She calls her new paintings “site-based wall paintings”. The inspiration came early in her first site-specific installation “Chi line” in late 1999. Accidentally, she noticed a hanging masking tape fall half way on a huge monochrome painted sheet rock wall. It appeared to her as vivid as ink brushstroke. By using industrial materials, various widths of masking tapes and paint rollers, she mentally, physically, and spiritually springs to frenzied action on tape and pigment - pulling, rolling, tearing, cutting, connecting - establishing the rhythm of lines. She uses such simple and limited materials, ultimately gaining a complete insight for a given space. This unique method of painting is driven in harmony with the oracle of the Chinese ancient I – Ching, the book of Changes with its active and passive Yin – Yang. She uses the I – Ching hexagrams as the base foundation for her visual vocabulary, in terms of the elemental form, followed by complete artistic innovation to ultimately explore infinity, randomness and suspense.
The I-Ching, or Book of Changes, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts, The text describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy that is intrinsic to ancient Chinese cultural beliefs. It is a book of wisdom. Weihong realized the essence of the cosmos is an endless changing mechanism. Therefore, she doesn’t and wonders on the surface of color and lines in accordance with “The structure of the Hexagrams” and the changes of Yin - Yang theoretically. She emphasizes the possibility of changes to explore such energy into its giving space; becoming a philosophy in action expressed in her entire art works.
In her wall paintings, Weihong uses masking tapes randomly to line up the six-group of lines, when she pulls off all the tapes, the accidental magic is realized, a chance events, and an evolution of events as a process. The color field of the painting surface is determined using a sense and intuition of surroundings. Once the color tones are derived, the rest of the creation becomes a pure freedom expression.
Her works highlight constancy or unity amid change. She has meticulously, almost mathematically, exhibited this interplay by showing the diverse convergences of these extremes in her “255 – 0 + Tea”, an ongoing interactive art project, started in 2002. “255” in RGB digital number is the 100% white, 0 is the 100% black. Weihong invites tea guests to have a real teatime with her in art galleries. Alternating between black and white tearoom, symbolizing the Yin - Yang duality of the Taoist tradition. The animation of all her teaguests on her tea website is a commentary on the search for the balance in nature.
Her simple elegant artworks in many ways resemble the minimalism of Western artists in the middle to late 20th century, like Frank Stella or Robert Ryman. Weihong’s art work, however, does not express a spiritual vacuum. Rather, her works are meditative. Weihong has more in common with Agnes Martin, Mark Rothko and Robert Irwin. Through such art practice Weihong liberated herself from the stereotyped academism traditional system. She breaks away from plain and shallow narrative visual expression. She cares more about the deep meaning behind the abstraction. In fact, Weihong artwork exemplifies a delivery thusly, “the oneness becomes the ten thousands of things, the ten thousands of things return to the oneness” – the foundation of her content. These realizations also naturally come from her roots. She studied traditional Chinese calligraphy since her childhood and pursued a spiritual journey since her young age – the critical elements that established a strong foundation, leading to her total awakening.
Weihong often express her art as “inhale and exhale” a merging of heart and nature. The result: “Devoted to the Universal Truth - Artistic Cultivation Manifests” as expressed by Confucius. To reach the real Way one needs the openness and clarity, exploring a complete freedom in natural rhythm, and not being blocked by tangible human world. In this way one will be enlightened after searching in a long dark shadow.
“Savor - View” will open in Beijing, presenting eleven “site-based wall paintings” that are recently created by Wei Hong with “Six Yao”(“Liu Yao”) as the theme, as well as a multimedia installation art named “255-0+Tea”, in which the artist will invite the audiences to have a teatime with her on site and communicate about art in life and the philosophy of life. It is believed that the interaction will impress the audiences with surrealistic inspirations through the special experience. We sincerely wish Weihong to have once more, a brilliant sublime achievement.
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