Requiem for the Present Eternal
2017 - 2020
Merging Western and traditional Eastern modes of representation in this multimedia work, Requiem for the Present Eternal presents the viewer with an alternative narrative to that of an earlier body of work, Substitute for Sorrow (2017). These large-scale monochromatic works incorporate a new medium - aluminium (materially reminiscent of Tabula Rasa (2016)) - within its composition.
Concepts of perception and dimensional potentiality share a cognate foundational scheme, linked by an expressive flow of texture and shadow. Here, each triptych duly references traditional Chinese painting - albeit in a contemporary approach. Influenced by time-honoured landscape paintings (Pinyin: ‘shan shuǐ’, which literally means, ‘mountain-water’) this contemporary visual context challenges traditional notions of Chinese representational art.
Through the use of linear Plexiglas atop compressed Xuan paper (saturated with expressive splatters of ink) a sense of tension is created between the viewer and the work, which allows a certain visual appropriation to form - alluding to a divergent, painted reality. By delivering ink stains with the use of an atomiser (rather than a traditional ink brush), compositional arrangements are thus explored through the deployment of radical techniques. The folds and grooves formed by the calligraphy paper translate the idiosyncrasies of painting and enable characteristics of a sculptural disposition to emerge.
-
As a side note: these works were partly inspired by the music of Henyrk Gorecki, specifically Symphony No. 3 – “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”. Symphonic yearning is reflected by the somnolent and contemplative nature of the visually monotonic works.