Standing inside Mind Set Art Center’s new exhibition space in Taipei’s Neihu District, and being surrounded by artworks that are taller than I am, I look for ways to tackle the theme of “Flowing Light”. The exhibition theme, interwoven among the works of more than 20 artists, seems at first abstract and sentimental, yet grand and all encapsulating at its core. I’ll explore the relationships between this theme and art by pulling from past researches and writings from the gallery’s published books.
The Flow and the Light
The muse behind the exhibition title “Flowing Light” is inspired by the description of light in “Light is Like Water”, a short story by Gabriel García Márquez, and by “Ode to the Red Cliff”, a long poem by Su Shi, a renowned Chinese painter and essayist during the Song Dynasty. The theme was chosen as an overarching theme to represent the strong artist lineup under MSAC’s banner. The theme foregrounds “light”, the fundamental element behind the existence of everything in nature, and how the flowing of light is distilled by the artists in their creative process. The title brings about an expressive and sentimental perspective on the flowing of light. It encourages us to go beyond the apparent shapes and colors of light and ponder a deeper question: how do artists engage in a conversation with “flowing light” as a concept of art in the modern age?
According to the Western art historians’ narrative on art in the 20th century, “light” is always seen as an element of revelation. The is evident when we look at a number of key developments: chiaroscuro in the 17th century Baroque era, the impressionist movement and shifts in live painting thanks to the invention of paint tubes in the 19th century, the modernized interpretation of color and light through the constructivist lens, the post-WWII developments such as the Light and Space movement, System Esthetics, the rise of installation art and the new, contemporary expressions on neon and fluorescent color since the popularization of acrylic paint. In eastern art history, despite the prominence of liberati paintings according to the writing of painter and art theorist Jing Hao, it wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that western realism and the use of light and shadow began to be implemented in ink brush paintings and gouache paintings. Light isn’t excluded in eastern paintings; it is the shadow that’s missing. From the traditional perspective, it is through the attention to light that a painter observes the shifting energy and landscapes in the wide world. And it is by depicting the flowing of energy and light that a painter portrays different objects and phenomena. This philosophy is distilled in Jing Hao’s writing, “First, observe the energy, and distinguish the clear from the murky”[i], “ponder about the object and find its truth”[ii]. These writings all point to the methodology of how ancient Chinese painters captured and recreated the shifting light in the world. We, the viewers, have a hard time perceiving the existence of light and shadows in their paintings, possibly due to the relations between Yin and Yang in the eastern universe. Some researchers argued that shadow is seen as the “Yin”, the non-existent projection of the actual subject, and therefore it is not painted on canvas. In E. H. Gombrich’s later book, “Shadows: The Depiction of Cast Shadows in Western Art”, he comments on “Second Ode to the Red Cliffs” by Su Shi and says this particular painting is significant in that it is a rare one in the history of Chinese art that incorporated the element of shadow in the frame. This eastern aesthetics stand in sharp contrast against that of western paintings, where the shadow is considered a concrete visual element and part of the overall expression. And in some cases, the shadow represents an energy that exists beyond the subject itself. Therefore, the idea of “flowing light” serves as a way of exploring how art can incorporate thoughts on the body, the material and the world view. I believe the observation that emphasizes on the shadow points to how “flowing light” in this day and age is different from what it was in the past. The strong contrast between light and shadow serves to defamiliarize the painting from the audience. Such effect is evident in JIA Aili’s “Duino Elegies” (2010) and Marina CRUZ’s “Patched Me” (2021) where the connection between reality and their portrayal is sometimes intimate and in other times, quite distant.
In Focus
“Flowing Light” has served as a lens that allows us to see a glimpse of contemporary art through works display at MSAC. The group exhibition is about the motions and sentiments of the body, the material language of multiple mediums, the light that flows among buildings through atmosphere and cast a shadow that draws the viewers’ attention to reality. In other artworks, light, which represents reality, appears to be stronger when contrasted against the shadows. Among the works in “Flowing Light”, however, the shadow, which represents the false and the virtual, appear to be part of light, and thus part of reality. This new dynamic allows artists more choices to construct their world. From the perspective of 21st-century Taiwanese artists, we can see that their focus has gradually shifted away from the past anxiety of adhering to either the Eastern or Western style of techniques to a more individualist approach. And from this angle, we can see that depicting the flowing motion of the human body and of the material allows the artists to portray their subjects and their shadows. Through the window walls at the entrance of MSAC’s exhibition hall, we see two installation artworks displayed at prominent positions: Juin SHIEH’s “Crumpled Memory” and Shinji OHMAKI’s “Gravity and Grace”. Both point to the core qualities of the exhibit, and the painterly characteristics of the show is further fleshed out by the large number of paintings inside. Like German art historian Isabelle Graw stated in her book “The Love of Painting”, “Painting has become a key framework even for artistic practices that aren’t related to the discipline.”[iii] Painting consistently incorporates the different mechanics that phase it out. It is an artistic language that transcends generations. In this regard, “Flowing Light” showcases what art can be in the digital age after its medium specificity is liberated. As I flip through the several albums that MSAC has published for its artists, my belief in “flowing light” as an aesthetic quality has been reassured by the description of their artworks:
“The artist wanders around in this space all day long to search for the traces of time among the vintage items while savoring each remaining bit of it.”
---- Excerpt from “The Verge of Nostalgia: on Lee Ming-tse’s Serendipity” by Chen Shui-tsai, “Serendipity by Lee Ming-tse” (2020)
“…when he finds himself in front of an untouched canvas, he loves to deal with it with ample movements, in a dance in which he opens his arms in order to contain everything that already exists in nuce.”
---- Excerpt from “With Both Hands” by Dr. Monica Dematte, for “Infinitrace – Rao Fu” (2019)
“Cruz’s work depicts the styles and patterns of these garments, the color and sheen of their fabrics, hinting at the various materials used and the changing temperatures of the seasons in which they would be worn.”
---- Excerpt from “Familiar with Defamiliarization: Marina Cruz’s Material Maternal” by Dr. Peng Jia Huei, “Marina Cruz’s Material Maternal” (2017)
“… these strokes may actualize as the beams of light. However, Jhong refused the dematerialized transparency of light, thus they are rather solid layers of pigment.”
---- Excerpt from “An Artist Untamed by Time” by Zian Chen, “Jhong Jiang-Ze 2003-2015” (2016)
As the mediating realm between the art market, the exhibition and book publication, an art gallery’s capability to push the envelope for art critique and research is seldom talked about. Perhaps “Flowing Light” is an intriguing opportunity. As the opening exhibition of a new space, it showcases the collective creative energy the artists that MSAC has gathered since 2010, and it also presents an outlook for the future. “Flowing Light”, as a unique perspective, has expressed the residual effect of contemporary art after the focus is shifted to the painterly, bodily and material qualities. This article could end up somewhere in an album, alongside all the photographed artworks in a virtual exhibition space. And because of that, I have no intention of elaborating on the connection between individual artworks and the exhibition’s title with words and take away their subtle beauty. The greater significance of this event is to have distilled the concept of “Flowing Light” from the artworks as a practice of and calling for a unique aesthetics. And this allows us to further ponder and explore the aesthetics of contemporary art.
Isabelle Graw(2018). The Love of Painting (1st ed.),p10-11. Berlin,DE: Sternberg Press.