In 2019 works generated from the residency at National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA) in Taipei were exhibited at The Australian Center on China In the World Gallery, Faculty of Asia and the Pacific, ANU, and at FortyFive Downstairs, Melbourne. During the 4 month residency at NTUA - financed by a Taipei Ministry of Education Research Award - I researched Chinese inks and paper, calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting and the portrayal of the sacred.
Two bodies of work emerged from auditing NTUA classes, the first referencing Chinese calligraphic seals and the second referencing traditional Chinese landscape painting, with rubbings being used in both sets of works. In conjunction with my research into Daoism and experimentation with Chinese inks on Chinese paper, I responded particularly to the rock sculptures found in Chinese gardens, the macro landscape (sacred mountain) delivered in micro form to the (domestic) garden. I attempted to deliver a hovering, mysterious space - the macro and the micro in tension together - not through the portrayal of the ideal landscape, as does traditional Chinese paintings, but through combining the reference to the existential (extraordinary) with the material (ordinary), in the one seemingly contradictory work.
The Chinese aesthetic of the beauty of the ink blot, suffuses all this work. Ink is appreciated on many levels, it is enjoyed for its particular material properties, creating unique, abstract shapes, and for what it might represent, such as a floating cloud, and for the lyrical way that it delivers language in calligraphic form. This aesthetic is very close to my own.
A selection of works shown here.
From the top:
First image: Pooling 集思 98cm x 220cm, Chinese ink, Japanese ink, European ink, acrylic paint, pigments, 2018.
Second image: Australian Centre for China in the World Gallery, Faculty of Asia and the Pacific, ANU, Canberra. Living Water: Journey in Inks exhibition, 2019.
Third image: Picnic at Hanging Rock 2, 懸崖上的野餐 2, 98cm x 220cm, Chinese ink, Japanese ink, European ink, pigments, 2019
Fourth image: Raise Up series: Unseen Beauty 5, 高舉系列: 潛藏之美5, European ink, Chinese ink, oil pastel on Chinese paper, 98cm x 220cm, 2019.
Fifth image: Picnic at Hanging Rock 3, 懸崖上的野餐 3, 98cm x 220cm, Chinese ink, Japanese ink, European ink, acrylic paint, pigments, 2019.
Sixth image, 4 works:
left: Water, Rock & Soul 4, European, Chinese, Japanese inks, pigments, oil pastel on Chinese paper, 35cm x 45cm, 2019.
next left: Water, Rock & Soul 2, European, Chinese, Japanese inks, pigments, oil pastel on Chinese and Japanese papers, 35cm x 45cm, 2019.
third image from left: Water, Rock & Soul 2, European, Chinese, Japanese inks, pigments, oil pastel on Chinese and Japanese papers, 35cm x 45cm, 2019.
right: Water, Rock & Soul 1, European, Chinese, Japanese inks, pigments, oil pastel on Chinese paper, 35cm x 45cm, 2019.
Seventh image: Taiwan Ambassador Elliott Charng who opened the exhibition Jouney in Inks at Australian Centre on China In the World Gallery 2019, seen with Ella Whateley.