ISSUE NO. 6 | MAY 2022 - MOUNTAIN AND WATER PAINTING MAGAZINE - Shan Shui Projects
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ISSUE NO. 6 | M AY 2 0 2 2
SHAN
SHUI
MOUNTAIN AND WATER PAINTING MAGAZINE
www.shanshuiprojects.net
Art in a general sense is the expression of called “global village” we believe we have unlimited
a subject, its ideas, feelings and visions of cognitive possibilities with minimal effort and we are
the world. Likewise, an artist rooted in his led to believe that communication is within reach
culture, has the opportunity to express and almost automatic, for example via the Internet or
the mental mechanisms of his culture, its the ease of trade of goods, and this inevitably leads
origins and his interpretative processes to superficial and mostly wrong communication. This
of the world. For this reason, intercultural vision is decidedly wrong, because it leads to shallow
studies are of fundamental importance, false knowledge, spread of prejudice and cultural
and art is one of the best means of arrogance. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution
SHAN investigation because it can give a
genuine image of its culture of origin.
for the intercultural communication problem,
therefore it requires an intellectual and cognitive
SHUI This could apply to modern art, traditional
art, or to that which has suffered foreign
effort, a desire to study and gain deeper knowledge.
Thus, our goal is to create a language suitable for
influences. Any form of art in any situation establishing a cultural dialogue that is structured and
is the mirror of the culture from which not superficial.
TEAM it comes from and is imbued with its This magazine aims to give a voice to the
aesthetic ideas. Therefore, the study of contemporary Chinese and non-Chinese scholars
art from different cultures and historical and artists. Our purpose is to create a cultural bridge
periods will enrich the artist’s expressive between two great cultures, in order to establish a
abilities. The vision of nature, the vision rich and fruitful dialogue in the sphere of Chinese
Giacomo Bruni of man in the world and the aesthetic painting. Chinese mountain and water painting
贾客暮 ideas of Western and Chinese culture are is one of the main artistic expressions in China,
Editor in Chief often almost the opposite, but this does characterized by more than 1500 years of evolution
not exclude the possibility of dialogue. and revolutions, and has found a new golden age of
We strongly believe that Western art creativity and expression in the contemporary times.
can be enriched through knowledge of This magazine will introduce some modern and
Zuha Rasheed the latter. At the same time, however, contemporary Chinese artists, the theories of Chinese
we must be careful about what it brings painting and the views of environmental aesthetics,
习夏泽
Editor and how it is imported, and above all, in a way that is reachable for everybody, from the
we must not allow external culture to academic world to any curious mind interested in the
prevail over indigenous culture. For this field of Chinese art and culture.
reason, dialogue must be undertaken Our hope is to popularize an artistic expression that
with wisdom and in full knowledge of the could have a positive impact on our lives, enabling us
facts, not only by transferring information, to cross certain limits subconsciously imposed by the
but also by having a deep knowledge western culture, from the very roots like the concept
and understanding of both cultures in of reality, our existence, our place in this world and
order to find an appropriate mean of how we relate with it. Every cultural system has
communication. This is the most difficult replied to these basic questions, but the answers are
aspect of intercultural exchange, as we all different, and art is one of the deepest expressions
are living in the age of globalization that embody all of these diverse conceptions.
and international capitalism. In the so-
8 manifesto
CONT
At the Source - Paintings of
46
Why is mountains and waters
painting of great value in the
contemporary world and why
Jean-Baptiste Née
ENTS
should the Village re-evaluate
it?
The Poetic Dance of Gao Qifeng 高奇峰's texts on Art
Lines: A Brief 56 By; Giacomo Bruni
Encounter with Wu
14 Guanzhong's
Eros and Thanatos in Enzo Fiore's
Expressive Ink Art
By; Shuo Sue Hua
landscape paintings and the latent
68 drives of nature in Lan Ying's
Between East and West Shanshui painting
30 – the Enso Cats by
Endre Penovac
By; Aurora Vivenzio
By; Thorsten Schirmer
Jia Kemu's 贾客暮 Language Radius Repetitive Metaphors in Lin Quan
Gaozh i—— Shanshui in Chinese
36 Beyond Mountains and Water Text
——A Preliminary Study on the Landscape Significance of 78 Contemporary Art
Giacomo Bruni's Mountain and Water Practice By; Zeng Dongping, Lin Jiangquan
By; Lin Jiangquan
Our Approach From the figure of the Chinese intellectual artist to Contemporaneity. During the eighth century China, a new figure of an intellectual artist was born: this figure would become topi- cal in the Chinese cultural panorama and make its way to the present day. Wenren hua 文人画, is the one who, following the humanistic values and teachings of the tradition, updates and applies them to the artistic-intellectual needs of his time. This process has never stopped, and still persists in the contemporary world. The Wenren hua encompasses the poet, the painter, the calligrapher, the theorist, the scholar and the intellectual in a single figure, and sees the cultivation of the spirit and mind as one of the main purposes of his/her work. In this way, a close link is established between practice and artistic theory; at the same time there is no separation between the arts, and there is a common thread between intellectual practice and material application. Of course this figure is closely linked to Chinese cultural heritage, but this does not make it less compatible with the artistic-cultural needs of Westernized contemporaneity. It also fits naturally into the trend of Environmental Aesthetics, which is an expressive channel of contempo- rary art and of fundamental importance, given that the biggest problems that afflict our society are often linked to the environment and the destructive approach that contemporary men have towards it. Respect for nature and the need to preserve it by living with it in harmony are intrinsic elements of traditional Chinese thought and that of the wenren hua, which see man and nature as two elements that are part of the same system: in these terms, in order to preserve human life, natural existence must also be protected, or else we would go towards the decay of both.
MAN I FESTO inevitably leads to a cultural flattening. the Village and without its revolutionary
Against this self-proclaimed global spirit no one can participate in the
Village. It does not have the ability to see dialogue of contemporaneity. So, to
neighbouring villages, since it believes finally get into the subject, in the Village
that all possible villages are within itself. Chinese painting is traditional, therefore
linked to the past, unable to evolve,
We as Sino-artists (some of non-Chinese something good just for the art history
origin, devoted to the study and practice books and museums, worthy of respect,
We find ourselves living in the era of it remains on the surface, it does not
but with the same respect that is given
deepen, and if it deepens it does it in its of Chinese painting), will focus on the
globalization. Thanks to the infosphere
areas concerning our cultural sphere, for archaeological finds.
we live in, with just one click we can be in own way, as it would in the centre from
which it developed. In fact, the Village is precisely that of Chinese art. Especially
Togo, with two clicks you can be stud-
ancient and full of History and histories, it those related to painting, with a particular
ying Sanskrit, with three you’re already
eye for landscape painting, which from There is no conception of a modern or
updated on what’s going on in Bhutan, has always had multiculturalism, always
now on we will call according to the contemporary Chinese painting, also
and with four more clicks you’re listening in expansion and translation, but only
Chinese denomination, Mountain and because when the term Chinese painting
to a piece played with the duduk, and recently has it reached global status.
Water painting. is pronounced, for some reason it is
immediately after we could be looking at
always accompanied by the adjective
“shanshui hua 山 水 画“
two whirling dervishes. In half a day we The Village is now global, so everyone is
“traditional”, which clearly denies the
become experts in Armenian music, Sufi welcome but the rules to follow are those
concept of modernity. Chinese art can
spirituality, Himalayan geopolitics and in of the Village head. Everyone can bring
The main will is to communicate with the only be defined as modern if expressed
any other aspect of world culture. something to the table, but it will still
Village through our art and our words, to through the means and processes of
have to be adapted to the matrix of the
present one of the many shaded areas modern western art.
Fantastic. Finally, a world without cultural Village.
with which it is scattered. Our task is to
barriers, devoted to the exchange find a language that is intelligible to the Revelation! There is modern and
and access of mutual knowledge. In With these premises, it is possible to face
Village as well as faithful to the original contemporary Chinese art; mountain and
this global village without borders, and analyse infinite issues concerning the
meaning. Without smoothing its diversity, water painting has been evolveing for at
we dance to the beat of superficiality, actual state of the alleged globalization.
without avoiding clashes, without least 1500 years, and continues to evolve,
sloppy culture and of cultural arrogance, For instance, how it believes to know
sweetening the pill. In this way it will be and other painting exppressions are even
where ignorance is adorned with two- different cultures, but in reality this
the Village that will make the effort to older. As obvious as it seems, China is
dimensional images, where the concept knowledge is based only on a store of
understand, and only in this way will the extremely large, therefore there are many
of “knowing that you do not know” empty images which are then filled with
communication be successful. In fact, we centres of cultural irradiation, and for this
has been abolished, although without the world view of the aforementioned
trust in the Village’s ability to understand reason there are various schools within
knowing. head of the Village. The same goes for
languages not forged by itself. China that follow different pictorial ex-
that mercantile capitalism that has
pressions. Consequently there is not just
It's important to note that, in this Village arrived at every corner of the globe, but
The reasons that drive us in this one movement of contemporary Chinese
the chief is western, the customs and gives the best of itself only if we follow the
campaign are varied and erudition is painting.
habits are also mostly western, and so needs of the Village.
not one of those. At best it can be a side
is the linguistic and material means We stand against a single world view,
effect.
of communication along with most , when in fact there are many. The ones
intellectual expressions and world views that does not support diversity, but
One of the biggest problems of the
of its inhabitants. The inhabitants tend to translates them, one that does not make
Village is that it believes that movements
ignore what is found outside the Village, them participate in the debate with their
of progress and evolutions only exists
not by choice, but by condition, not out own voices, but accepts them only after
inside itself, that it has reached the status
of lack of curiosity, but because of the a trial of metamorphosis. We are against
of “modern”, and those who are not
limited means. The Village is truly global the imperialism of tastes and customs,
indigenous come from a static culture,
on a physical level, it truly embraces of judgment, of means of expression,
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backward and anchored to the past;
the entire earth’s surface, but in fact and of what to express, a situation which
without the use of the means forged by
shanshui
Our main objective follows: This was also the case for China until the Let’s take a concrete example. The by our eyes, therefore it was an almost
mid-nineteenth century. China behaved ancient western visual arts and the completely unexplored area.
To spread the knowledge of like the Village, just another Village that Renaissance up to modernity, basically
contemporary Chinese painting outside did not see those who were outside acted in the field of mimesis. In painting, China has had the good fortune of
of China, and to give voice to the great of it, except of course through its own all the techniques to represent the visual meeting and accepting a different way of
artists of the last century as well as to the modalities. And even though external aspect of the surrounding world comes interpreting the world, so why should the
new young artists. cultural influences were accepted, it was together. Now coming back to the Village, Village be deprived of it?
always retranslated in Chinese terms, just to top it all, there was this terrifying
Why is it important you may ask? For like the Village does. As a consequence, yoke called Albertan’s perspective. The Just how much could a new way of
starters, in order to make sense of the there was a sense of cultural superiority Village gave a great deal of value to the understanding reality help the old
term globalization. But above all, to enrich compared to that which was not sight, making it almost the only tool for painting of the Village? A whole world
the Village and to redefine its ideas of Chinese. Until one terrible day, when the perceiving reality. Establishing invisible would open up, which should not mimic
intellectual absolutism. barbarians arrived with cannons and perceptual borders because they were the Chinese one, but be inspired by it.
rifles and destroyed the armies of the all-encompassing. However, at a certain So, we also take sides against the
Chinese art, together with all the other great empire. On that day, besides the point artists and intellectuals got tired supremacism of sight and consequently
intellectual expressions of China, refers to fall of many lives, many certainties also of this conception, and thus historical against anthropocentrism. Our desire is
a system of values that has come down to fell in terms of value. Their system had avant-garde was born. Unfortunately, not to introduce these new visions, these new
the present day from ancient times. This not protected them from catastrophe, knowing any other way of perceiving the conceptions, and these new values. Not
great apparatus of knowledge and ideas as it once did since the dawn of Chinese world other than the anthropocentric one that the Village is completely unaware
has influenced and is still influencing culture. This was not the first time that of the gaze, they found themselves in a of it, but this knowledge is hidden in
the world view of Chinese people and of China fell into the hands of foreigners, rather uncomfortable position, so much academic publications, accessible to
course also their artistic expressions. and every time the foreigners were so that the path ended with destruction those interested in the subject, but very
The same discourse can be re-proposed sinicized. Thus, their cultural continuity of the form and that of the painting itself, far from the world of contemporary art or
in a general way also to the evolution persisted. However, the value system was and having to resort to new media to be anyone else.
of the western mind, a process that still slowly collapsing to the point where able to express themselves. It is precisely
probably was less coherent than the it almost disappeared. Since then it has for these reasons that in contemporary
Chinese one, which however led to rebuilt itself, but the system of the other era we refer to paintings as an “old To conclude, we will introduce one of
the formation of various expressions foreign villages took a hold as well, strong lady” who keeps up with new artistic these intrinsic aspects of Chinese art
of thought rooted in the conception of of its modernity. expressions with great difficulty. which can be of great help and source of
the world that the Village forged during inspiration for our beloved Village. Why
its evolution. And this is exactly the key Accordingly, in contemporary China it So where is all this getting at? In China, is mountain and water painting of great
point of our reasoning, once the world can be said that there are two systems, the influence of western art came value in the contemporary world and why
interpretation system is established, the original and the imported one. The between the late 1800s and early 1900’s. should the Village re-evaluate it? In the
it is almost impossible to get out of same could be said for the world of art, The first to arrive was via Japan, the great pictorial experience of the Village,
it, as it is invisible, and its boundaries but art can be applied at will on any area. realistic techniques of the Barbizon landscape painting as an independent
unrecognizable. Because it being the This has created a unique situation where school. And what were the most shocking genre was born late, and died early. The
only view you know, you believe that it the two worlds communicate with each innovations for the Chinese? Mimesis, fact that in China it is already the higher
is the only view that exists. It’s like those other, sometimes one taking over the focal perspective, chiaroscuro, and all form of painting and has a millennium
unfortunate people who were chained in other, creating conflicts but also at the those techniques which at the time in and a half of history should make us ask
the platonic cave. It wasn’t until someone same time a fertile ground for creativity. the West were considered regressed, questions about how it has probably
came in from the outside, did they realize representatives of a system that in those been underestimated. Well, in reality it
the condition they were in. It is exactly for this reason that we want to years the avant-gardes despised because has not been underestimated, in fact
make this new system of thought known of its anti-contemporary expressions. Why there is no right and wrong in art, it has
to the Village, only then will it be able to was this seen in China as revolutionary been evaluated according to the means
see its own boundaries, so that it will be and innovative? Because traditional that the Village head, according to its
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able to ask new questions and give itself pictorial theories disgusted the view conceptions and ideas. And it is precisely
new answers. and representation of form as perceived
shanshui
for this reason, we must open the doors to new value
systems.
Art cannot be alienated from the reality in which it is
produced, and one of the most important themes for us
is that of ecology, in fact this hyper capitalist Village has
massacred the world we live and does not seem to want
to take steps back. Many have already set in motion to
counter this destructive madness, but there is no contest.
In the Village there has recently been talk of environmental
aesthetics that lashes out against anthropocentrism to
concert on environmental beauties, therefore going against
one, the axioms of western aesthetics since ancient Greece,
against that conception that sees man as the superior
creature and dominant in the ecumene. This new point
of view, at least for the Village, is one of the basic aspects
of Chinese ethics. Philosophy and aesthetics are found
in the texts at the base of Chinese culture, at the basis of
Confucian philosophy and Daoist thought and continues
to be repeated till modern times. A conception that does
not just appreciate environmental beauties, but its holistic
conception of the universe puts man on the same level
as any other creation of nature. In Yi Zhuan 易传 (5th
century BCE), a commentary on Yi Jing 易经, wrote that
“the greatest virtue of heaven and earth is life” (天地之大德
曰生), this is to say that the greatest virtue is to create an
environment where all life forms and natural elements can
coexist in harmony.
For this reason, too, the category of still life does not exist in
Chinese painting, in fact for the Chinese artist it would be
“who discusses
painting in terms
absurd to paint lifeless subjects.
For these and other reasons, the Village and the artists that
reside in it will benefit from learning Chinese art. Mountain
and water painting will inspire them, the beauty of nature
of form likeness,
will awaken the minds and set the minds in motion. The has the
boundaries of the Village will begin to appear and we can
finally begin to break them down. understanding
of a child”
Su Dongpo
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shanshui
The Poetic Dance of Lines: A Brief
Encounter with Wu Guanzhong's
Expressive Ink Art
By; Shuo Sue Hua
Wu Guangzhong, Waterfall《瀑》,ink on paper , 1999
After returning to China, Wu taught
at the Central Academy of Fine Arts
In a seminal paper, Martin J. Powers in 1951. He was criticized for being too
argues that the Chinese literati in- “modern” in an environment where
tellectuals have always found a way the preference for social realist style
to construct the discernibly unique prevailed and dominated. Because
visual narratives to represent their of the artist’s incompatibility with the
national and cultural identity. Ink art mainstream visual trend at the acade-
is one powerful instrument for such my, he was transferred to teach at the
sustenance of self-identification.1 Wu Tsinghua University in 1953 and the
Guanzhong (1919-2010) is a preemi- Beijing Normal College and College
nent 20th-century Chinese painter. of Arts and Crafts since 1956. During
From 1937 to 1942, he studied Western the first half of the Cultural Revolu-
oil painting and Chinese style paint- tion (1966-1977), Wu was sent to the
ing in the Hangzhou Academy of Art countryside, and did not have the
under Chinese art masters Lin Feng- luxury to paint in a studio.4 In 1973, he
mian (1900-1991) and Pan Tianshou was recalled to Beijing and resumed
(1897-1971).2 In 1947, he won a govern- painting. While working on multiple
ment scholarship to study at l'Ecole commissioned projects for hotels, the
nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts, painter was accused as a “bourgeois”
where the painter received training painter. At this juncture he shifted
in both classical and contemporary away from Western-style oil paintings
arts in Paris, France. When studying to work mainly in the Chinese medi-
in France, Wu immersed himself in um.5
the paintings from the period of Eu-
ropean high modernism. The richness Wu Guanzhong’s exuberant ink and
and freedom of expression in modern color paintings display coalescence of
western paintings had widened his Western and oriental visual languag-
horizon of appreciating art and honed es. The artist’s distinctive personal
his painting skills.3 style leads to a new genre of Chinese
1 Martin J. Powers, The Cultural Politics of the
ink painting.6 Since the late 1970s, the
Brushstroke, in The Art Bulletin 95/2 (2013), 312- artist held successful solo exhibitions of exhibitions in Asia, America, and ry Chinese art history had to do with
327. in China, increasing his popularity Europe starting from the mid-1980s, its art in response to Western art, and
2 Zhijian Qian, Towards a Sinicized Modernism: The within the nation. Following a series Wu became known internationally. A scholars have pointedly discerned
Artistic Practice of Lin Fengmian in Wartime China, 4 Wu Guanzhong, Cold Winter, Sweltering Summer, recipient of the award of Officier de the cultural differences in conceptu-
1937-1949 (PhD diss., New York University, 2014); Earth, in Collected Writings of Wu Guanzhong 1 l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from alizing the abstract quality in pictori-
Wu Guanzhong, In memory of my teacher Lin Feng- (Beijing: Tuanjie Chubanshe, 2008), 40-42. the French Ministry of Culture, he was al languages.8 When comparing Wu
mian, in Literature and Art Studies 4 (1979), 71. 5 For discussion on Wu Guanzhong’s artistic devel- the first living Chinese painter to hold with the abstract painters in the West,
3 The European painters include Paul Cézanne opment in response to the cultural politics in China,
a one-man show at the British Muse- art historian Fong Wen commented
(1839-1906), Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (1848- see Wenwen Liu, Modernity Through Syncretism and
1903), Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (1869-1954), Eclecticism: Wu Guanzhong's Artistic Practice in the
um.7 that “most modern Chinese painters
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973), Amedeo Clemente Cultural and Political Environment of the PRC, 1949- have refrained from experimenting
Modigliani (1884-1920), Georges Braque (1882- 1989 (PhD diss., Victoria University of Wellington, An important part of the 20th-centu-
P 14
P 15
1963) and Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955). See Wu 2019). 8 A classical study is: Mayching Kao, China's
7 Michael Sullivan, Modern Chinese Art: The Khoan
Ganzhong, Again on Shitao’s Comments on Paint- 6 Wenwen Liu, Modernity Through Syncretism and Response to the West in Art, 1898-1937 (PhD diss.,
and Michael Sullivan Collection (Ashmolean Muse-
ing, in Art Research (no. 1: 1997): 43. Eclecticism, 15-16. Stanford University, 1972).
um, 2001), 134.
shanshui
Clouds and snow《云与雪》, ink on paper ,132x66, 1990
with non-objective art.”9 The artist was is an art expert from the West. Are my abstraction with xieyi. A distinguish- experiences, human emotions, and the
conscious of the gazes landed at him paintings capable of moving both audi- able feature of his ink paintings has to karma of the world. To him, non-ob-
12
from the West: ences? It is really difficult. I spent my en- jective abstraction in art is like a kite
do with the insistence on connecting
tire life struggling with it. 10
abstraction with the forms of concrete with a broken string, and the attempt
Each time I paint I imagine two men
phenomena, rendering presentations at a hybrid style was to engender a pic-
looking [at me] from behind: one is a fel-
Like many of his artist peers in China, of poetic dreamscapes. His favourite
11 torial language that is deeply historical
low townsman [from China], the other
Wu learned about Western art and theo- metaphor is to consider painting as a in form while absorbing elements from
9 Wen C. Fong, Between Two Cultures: Late-Nine- ries through lenses filtered with Chinese kite with a string that connects to life the post-impressionists. 13
teenth-and Twentieth-Century Chinese Paintings terminology and concepts, for instance,
from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection (Metro-
by equating realism with xieshi, and 11 Artistic Concepts of Wu Guanzhong’s Paintings
P 17
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politan Museum of Art: 2001), 254; David Clarke, Dance out from the Frames, News.gov.HK, accessed 12 Michael Chen, Wu Guanzhong – a Kite with an
Modern Chinese Art (Oxford University Press, 2000), 10 Wu Guanzhong, Fifty Years of Painting, in Col- 13 April 2020. (https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/gener- Unbroken String, 19-20.
46-47. lected Writings of Wu Guanzhong 1, 159. al/201111/10/P201111100395.htm) 13 Wu Guanzhong, The Eyes of Painting, 128.
shanshui
Seeking for the common ground of and Western sides of this issue, Michael ence. His rocks are top-heavy, looking as the painting by removing all connections
employing abstraction for artistic ex- Sullivan did not hesitate to show sympa- though they are about to fall and tumble. with nature? Why, in Wu Guanzhong’s
pression in both Western modernism thy for Wu: His trees are rootless, looking as though metaphor, cut the kite string? 16
and classical Chinese painting, Wu’s ap- they are about to take flight. All these con-
proach to abstraction called the atten- To Wu Guanzhong, abstraction means tribute to a feeling of dreamlike unreality 16 Wu Guanzhong, in continuous exchanges of
tion of the scholars trained in the West abstracting the “essence” of the form. To in his painting. This, Wu Guanzhong
15 thoughts with Michael Sullivan, was aware of the
cross-cultural difference in understanding abstract
to an illuminating discussion on the him, the greatest Chinese abstract painter calls abstraction. Since Chinese artists aesthetics. As he writes in 1983: “Professor Sulli-
cultural differences in the pictorial nar- is Bada Shanren. He is able to convey his have always held that the forms of nature van recently wrote to me, saying that [my] abstract
ratives of modern abstraction between disquiet and his sorrow through the play are the visible manifestations of a reality painting is different from [the Western notion of]
nonobjective art…to me forms and phenomena
Western and Chinese paintings.1 With 14
of black against white, and through the that lies behind the images, why dimin- must come from life with no exception…” See Wu
an understanding of both the Chinese movement of his lines, and through figu- ish the force and meaning of the forms in Guanzhong, Kite with Unbroken String, in Ruixian
14 Wenwen Liu, Modernity Through Syncretism and rative forms he pursues flux and transi- 15 Peter C. Sturman, Wu Guanzhong and The Task of Chen ed., Collection of Wu Guanzhong’s Writings
Eclecticism, 144-158. Painting a New China, 38-39. (Beijing: Bafang Wenhua Chubanshe, 1992), 19.
P 19
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shanshuiAt Rest, ink on paper , 2010
that of Pollock’s. Art historian Richard
19
and traditional Chinese painting tech-
Barnhart made a similar remark: “One niques, Wu was attentively looking for
of his [Wu Guanzhong’s] most recent pictorial languages suitable for captur-
works created at the time of my writ- ing modern urban living experience
ing this essay (October 1988) is a huge in Asia’s frontier cities. It was not for-
mural for the Beijing hotel, the larg- tuitous that the artist discovered a sub-
est painting he has ever done. The old tle resemblance between Hong Kong
pine trees he has painted, called “Pure, scenery and Paris on the canvases of
Strange, Old, and Weird,” will remind French painters. He understands that
some of Jackson Pollock, but it is clear the aesthetic system rooted in another
that the writhing, liquid, flowing line clime (for example the Jiangnan area in
and splashed dots of this exuberant cre- China) is inadequate for the Hong Kong
ation have their roots far back in the images. His Jiangnan-themed paintings
seventeenth-century individualists, and are characterized by contrasts of black
somehow, in the artists of Paris who and white colours and sharply defined
have been absorbed into the mind of clusters of geometrical shapes includ-
Wu Guanzhong. 20
ing rectangles, shallow cubes, verticals
and horizontals. Later in the writing
With knowledge in modern European the traveling artist compares what he
observes, the unfamiliar, with what he
a Ph.D. dissertation on 20th-century American
watercolor paintings, cross-referenced American knows.
Another stream of analysis of Wu’s art- painting no longer just describe the appar- watercolor paintings against Chinese ink paintings.
works drew a linkage between Wu and ent, they reveal the state of mind of the art- See Sherman E. Lee, A Critical Survey of American
The traditional brushwork (bi mo) [for
Watercolor Painting (PhD diss., Western Reserve
the leading American painter Paul Jack- ist. In Chinese painting Wu has found an University, 1941). Chinese style landscape paintings], for
son Pollock (1912-1956), taking the cu- expressive vehicle for his art. Since 1980, 19 Peter C. Sturman, Wu Guanzhong and the Task of example, marking ink dots with the
ratorial writing for Wu’s retrospective he has worked extensively in this medi- Painting a New China, 43.
center tip or slanted tip of the brush to
20 Richard Barnhart, The Odyssey of Wu Guan-
exhibition in 1987 for example: um. 17
paint the moss, is not right for portraying
zhong, 17.
Take, for example, ‘Lion Grove Garden, Although the painter claimed to have
Suzhou’ (1983, cat. No 56). One sees in not seen Pollock’s paintings, compara-
it a profusion of meandering lines and tive studies of Wu and American abstract
splashing colors that outlined the artifi- expressionist painters offer a meaningful
cial rock arrangement and the trees in a way to interpret his art and ideas. Peter 18
typical Suzhou garden. To an art critic, C. Sturman suggests that Wu’s artistic
City Night ink on paper ,1997
the lines and splashes may call to mind conception which treats form and con-
the drip paintings by Jackson Pollock. cept as the key components of a painting
Yet when asked, he claimed he had nev- is however fundamentally different from
er seen a Pollock painting prior to this 17 Michael Chen, Wu Guanzhong – a Kite with an
work. Indeed, the brushstrokes in ‘lion Unbroken String, 4.
grove’ are probably more akin in spirit to 18 It is not new to find scholars taking transcultural
approaches for the study of 20th-century modern
those by the Qing painter, Ba Da, whom
P 20
P 21
art, oftentimes cross-referencing and comparing
he admires. Like Ba Da, the lines in Wu’s paintings between Chinese paintings and Western
art. For instance, Sherman Lee, the first to write
shanshuiDots and lines to welcome the spring, oil on canvas, 1996
P 23
P 22
shanshuithe Hong Kong landscape. Neither how streets and pointed rooftops. It reminds aginative reworking of Hong Kong city- black and white shuttle across the dim-
Monet painted the [Parisian] boulevard me of the orchestra, the dragon tiger gate scape, with a more daringly abstract ming air to take the shape of variable
nor the way Albert Marquet depicted the (long hu men) and the prose in its loosely and less documentary approach. De- grids, like a densely woven net. The lu-
port scene is appropriate for this oriental defined structure. It should be entirely up liberately avoiding the predominance cidly colorful paint, splashed embellish
metropolis. The narrow, densely popu- to the artist to weave the brightly-colored of gray tones, in City Night (1997), Wu the overwhelming gloom, exposing the
lated old Hong Kong streets are similar vista that he/she sees himself/herself. 21
uses the artifice of intense, pervasive imagined truth by pulling the viewer
to the modest alleys painted by Maurice black tonalities to evoke the sensuous into an imagined reality of the bustling,
Utrillo, however without the sense of In the 1990s, traveling to Hong Kong exuberance and eternal loneliness born populated streets, observing as the daz-
melancholia. The modern architecture has ratified Wu Guanzhong's more im- out of the city’s nightlife he had seen zling neon light traversing the dark
[in Hong Kong] features straight-line, a 21 Wu Guanzhong, Wo Fu Dan Qing: Wu Guan- and remembered. Hundreds of pairs of background. 22
zhong Zi Zhuan (Painting and My Life: Autobiogra-
magnificent arc, smooth surface, busy phy of Wu Guanzhong) (Hong Kong: Joint Publish- ing (Hong Kong) Company Limited, 2005): 70-71. 22 Chinese art historian Chen Chiyu suggests that
Recalling Taishan peaks, ink on paper《忆泰山高峰镜心》
P 24
P 25
shanshuiMemories of Home
The painter needs not to specify loca- unity of rectangle, square and circles Hong Kong as the place where “East or muting the identity issue of Hong
tion, but rather, he uses color, facture emphasize the modernizing version of meets West” is an enormously wide- Kong, placing it to the background to
and rectilinear grid of intersecting, the city view. It hardly matters whether spread cliché, and one which manag- give place for reconciling Chineseness
mellifluous lines to abstract the image. the painting clandestinely inscribes the es to deny any separate identity to the and modernity in their art. As the paint-
Concrete objects are leached out, and memory of the painter’s trip or encoun- colony, to reduce it to a “gateway” or er tacitly oscillated between the Chinese
flatness and aesthetically controlled ters in Hong Kong or a hypothetical one “bridge” through or over which Chinese cultural root and a quest for modernity,
Wu Guanzhong uses colors to compose abstract that resulted from imagination with the and Western influences pass’. In this 23
he effaced in his works the material and
patterns which give new life to the city’s architecture. pictorial ambition to reject an empiri- respect Wu Guanzhong seems to share a social depreciation of the city’s colonial
See Chiyu Chen, “The Combination of Chinese cally grounded approach. common dilemma faced with his Hong history. At the critical time of the trans-
and Western Influences on Chinese Modern Ink
Hong Kong-based art historian David Kong peers. They opted for neutralizing
P 27
P 26
Painting with Lin Fengmian, Zhang Ding and Wu Art,” in David Clarke, Art and Place: Essays on Art
Guanzhong as Examples,” Art of the Orient, no. 2 Clarke once suggests: ‘The notion of 23 David Clarke, “Between East and West: Negotia- from a Hong Kong Perspective (Hong Kong: Hong
(2013):165-188. tions with Tradition and Modernity in Hong Kong Kong University Press, 1996): 73.
shanshuiLu Xun's hometown《鲁迅故乡》oil on canvas, 1976
fer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, he con-
sciously avoided the issue of regional geo-
politics and international politics over the
control of Hong Kong, albeit proud of the
fruitful achievement of the city’s economic
development.
In the pictorial conception of Wu Guan-
zhong’s abstract Hong Kong paintings,
colored blocks seem to symbolize the artist’s
emotional content in response to the glam-
or of the motley crew of high-rise mansions
and their human dwellers. It is the conflu-
ence of dreams and real-life encounters that
motivate viewers to perceive, assess, visual-
ize and invent their own interpretations of
these works. Wu writes that he has been
24
pursuing the expansive, desolate, grand and
profound realm, amplified with hopes for
mankind, the multitude of happenings and
emotions. 25
Dr. Shuo (Sue) Hua is a Hong Kong-based re-
searcher of East Asian visual art. She is Assis-
tant Curator at the University of Hong Kong,
University Museum and Art Gallery. She is inter-
ested in studying modern and contemporary
Chinese art in a cross-cultural setting and from
socio-cultural and economic perspectives
24 Michael Sullivan comments that Wu is able to “convey
his disquiet and his sorrow through the play of black
against white, and through the movements of his lines…
Through figurative forms he pursues flux and transience.
His rocks are top-heavy, looking as though they are
about to fall and tumble. His trees are rootless, looking as
though they are about to take flight…All these contribute
to a feeling of dreamlike unreality in his painting.” See
Michael Sullivan, “Wu Guanzhong: Reflections on His
Life, Thought and Art,” in Lucy Lim, ed., Wu Guanzhong:
A Contemporary Chinese Artist (San Francisco, CA: Chi-
nese Culture Foundation of San Francisco, 1989).
25 See Wu Guanzhong, “Time Immemorial (Hong-
P 29
P 28
huang),” in Wu Guanzhong, Collected Writings of Wu
Guanzhong vol. 2 (Wu Guanzhong Wencong) (Beijing:
Tuanjie Chubanshe, 2008):3.
shanshuiBetween East and West – the Enso Cats
by Endre Penovac
By; Thorsten Schirmer Born in Serbia in 1956, Endre Penovac
studied at the Art Academy in Novi
Ink is a fascinating medium with Sad. Already in his youth, through the
great expressiveness. While ink in the books and poems of Hermann Hesse,
Western tradition is primarily used for he came into contact with Far Eastern
drawing, in East Asia it is the most im- philosophy, which had a lasting influ-
portant medium for painting. Accord- ence on him. The focus of his work is
ing to the Chinese tradition, calligra- watercolor and ink painting, in which
phy is a mirror to the soul. Ink painting he particularly focuses on depicting
in East Asia, whose most important cats. In doing so, he reduces the form
means of expression are paper, brush to a few expressive lines and gradient
and ink, is shaped by the same prin- effects. In this way he succeeds in a
ciples. China has kept and mantained remarkable range of expression, the
this tradition to the present day and degree of abstraction of which rang-
thus createing a unique alternative es from precisely observed and effec-
to Western painting. The Serbian En- tively simplified movement studies
dre Penovac is one of the few West- to the almost complete dissolution of
牧溪 Muxi《六柿》 Six Persimmons 35.1 x 29 cm
ern artists who have successfully ap- form. What characterizes Endre Peno-
proached this tradition. His depictions vac's work is its fine balance between
of animals use the techniques of west- Western watercolor painting and in-
ern watercolors, but also show the in- fluences from the East Asian tradition.
fluence of Chinese ink painting. His careful observation and high tech- nical perfection has earned him the level of enlightenment. Penovac likes
recognition of a wide audience not to transform this Enso into a sleeping
only in the Western world but also in cat, his beloved animal as the main
China, as his numerous international subject. Corresponding to the image
exhibitions, workshops and awards of the Enso with its open, converging
impressively confirm. ends, the poles of Occident and Ori-
In East Asia, specializing in a subject ent come so close together in these
that has to be practiced throughout works, resulting in a happy interplay
life is a common challenge on the of both traditions. So with his art work
“Way of Painting” that Endre Peno- Endre Penovac joins the community
vac faces with his cat images. He ex- of those people who stand for a dia-
presses them with calligraphic brush logue of cultures As Goethe formulat-
strokes and ink washes or modulates ed it around 200 years ago:
them out of an ink circle, as the Chan
monks uses to paint them as a sym- He who knows himself and others
bol of the oneness of all being. This so Here will also see,
called Enso (円相, jap. “circle”) has its That the East and West, like brothers,
roots in the “Ten Ox-Herding Paint- Parted ne'er shall be.
ings” 《十牛圖》 of the Chinese Chan Thoughtfully to float for ever
master Guoan Shiyuan, who around 'Tween two worlds, be man's endeav-
1150 discribed and illustrated the way our!
of enlightenment, showing an herd So between the East and West
boy who has lost his ox, and starts to To revolve, be my behest!
P 30
P 31
search for it. Finally, in picture eight
there is no herd boy or ox left, just an On the Divan, Johann-Wolfgang von
empty circle symbolizing the highest Goethe (1749-1832)
shanshuiP 32 P 33
What I call painting doesn
not exceed the joy of careless
sketching with the brush. I do
not seek for formal likeness;
I do it simply for my
amusement.
Ni Zan
P 34
P 35
shanshuiJia Kemu's 贾客暮 Language Radius multilingual scene, and the long scroll
with ink and wash as the main medi-
Jia Kemu. He believes that the land-
scape at the bottom of the brush
Beyond Mountains and Water Text um, Ten Thousand Miles of Rivers and
Mountains, Wanli Jiangshan 《万里
comes from the depth of field in his
heart: "the mountains in his mind",
——A Preliminary Study on the Landscape Significance of Giacomo Bruni's
江山》(38x450 cm, 2018, fig.1) brings a and the portraits of these mountains
Mountain and Water Practice recognition system of "citizen of the have become his mental models. The
By; Lin Jiangquan 林江泉; Translated by; Cherry Tsang world" to generate icons that face re- continuous mountain peaks from one
ality. The image is formed according self to another self; from one cloud
Jia Kemu's thinking is freed from the shackles of formula, and philosophy is to the breath, and the movement and to another cloud; from one way out
given the conditions for its survival and development. (Inscription) transformation of the image which to another are elusive and varied. As
mobilizes the dynamic code of the Fang Shishu 方士庶(1693-1751), a paint-
Cruising between elegant and quaint, the vast and the expressionist schema, rocks, flowing water, trees and clouds. er during the Qing Dynasty, said: "The
Jia Kemu, or is alias Fumo 腹墨, constantly escapes the conventional formu- mind creates the environment, and
las and the inherent pictorial experience, the autonomous grammar widening The "one stroke" yihua 一画 empha- the hand moves the mind, this is the
the radius of his language. He pushes forward a new "time difference" in an- sized by Shi Tao 石涛 (1642-1707), a fa- virtual state. The virtual and the real
cient paintings - the extracted structure and space belonging to "self" wozhe mous painter in the late Ming and ear- are the existence of the brush and ink.
我者. The texts of 12 countries are arranged in the traditional artistic conception ly Qing Dynasty, is a methodology for Therefore, the ancients use the brush
and style, the concept of ink and wash, the structure and space of modernism, solving all kinds of things. Jia Kemu's and ink to make the green mountains
and the writing ability of traditional Chinese painting is brought to the complex landscape practice hides the relation- and luxuriant trees, living waters and
ship between "one stroke" and "differ- moist stones, in order to constructs
ent phenomena and things'' wanshu another kind of spiritual transmission
万殊, and achieves a certain symmetry outside of heaven and earth." Tia yong
with "the principle of one stroke". He an suobi: “因心造境，以手运心，此虚境
emphasizes the movement of ges- 也。虚而为实，是在笔墨有无间，故古人
tures, and his tightness is moderate, 笔墨具此山苍树秀、水活石润，于天地之
as loose as a tangle, as tight as a carv- 外另构一种灵寄。”《天慵庵随笔》The
ing knife, his thinking is freed from the different depths of field of Jia Kemu's
shackles of the program, and the phi- paintings peaks a metaphorical depth
losophy of the rhythm of the picture of field from the self, daily life to the
has obtained the conditions for sur- spiritual.
vival and development, and achieved
the construction of saving ink and Human life is controlled by urbaniza-
color. Connecting the empty scene tion in all aspects. The media in the
and the real scene, connecting the di- cities are moving people's attention to
vine scene and the real scene, when whether matter is the carrier of con-
the realistic meaning of the landscape sciousness. The virtual has become
is drawn closer, the depth of field of a common way of life for human be-
historiography becomes active. ings. In Jia Kemu's fictional "Mountain
and Water Realty", fiction and realities
Jia Kemu studied Gao Qifeng 高奇峰 relationship is a clue he has been fol-
(1889-1933) and the Lingnan School lowing. In his series of mountain and
of Painting, and I remember when water works, fiction and reality are
he told me that Guan Shanyue 关山 synchronized. Within the same time
月(1912-2000) was the first Chinese and space, the two constitute the or-
painter that caught his attention. ganic core of the movement of things.
During my study of mountains and The viewer tries to find an exit in his
water at preschool age, I was also in- mountains and waters through the
fluenced by Guan Shanyue's Raft- twists and turns of social reality, which
P 37
P 36
ing in Autumn Stream《秋溪放筏》 seems to exist for his mountains and
(fig.2) and other works. In this regard, waters painting. As the philosophy of
I formed a spiritual resonance with
1
shanshui"being" conveyed in poetry: of Forests and Streams《林泉高致集》,
from the Northern Song Dynasty, text
no bird by Guo Xi 郭熙 (1020-1090), Art Critic
there is no sky John Berger's Ways of Seeing, Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania Architecture
push the window again Professor William W. Braham's Views
until you see the world on Landscape Assortment of proper-
—Birds and the Sky ties and architect and historian Alan
(Gye-gye Lin Kanyi) Hess's traces of how landscaped pub-
lic spaces came to be in the 1950s, it
It turned out to be the largest back- is clear that they all have common
ground in the landscape - meaning immediacy. Jia Kemu's practice of
the existence of the sky is for the flight mountain and water painting and
of birds. Urban scholars do not know rubbing of physical objects has a
whether the landscape can bear sig- timeless immediacy, preserving the
nificant geopolitical responsibility, but real-time state of things, like Artist
it represents an artistic way of medi- Stanley K.C Lam's automatic painting
ating in today's world. Urbanism is, on Concrete Sends an Invitation to Rain'
a certain level, evidence of rationality, (Automatic paiting, rain, concrete, ink,
the vertical development of architec- acrylic sheet, dimendions variable,
ture is the reflection of mountains and 2016, fig. 3), which is on an acrylic pan-
water. el attached to concrete, and lets the
rain wash away, leaveing the shape of
In Jia Kemu's "Mountain and Water the rain, as on the mountains and wa-
Text", an important monograph on ter after rain.
the practice of landscape painting
Linquan Gaozhi, The Lofty Message The immediacy of works such as Jin-
3 wen Shanshui 《金文山水》，Chinese
bronze inscriptions Mountain and
Water Series (44x66 cm, 2020, fig.4,),
Xiajiang River After Rain 《峡江云霁》
(24x32 cm, 2019, fig.5), Hanshan Ming-
yan Temple 《寒山明岩寺》(144x26 cm,
2020, fig.6) and other works constitute
Jia Kemu's "Mountain and Water Text''.
Light, shadow and color are enough
to reveal and create a scene, or bring
out philosophical and life scenes. The
meaning or attributes behind these
factors are not the point, what really
matters is the physical state of the vi-
sion at that time and place. "Shanshui
Text" is the process of materializing
time and presence. In the dying "time
difference" and restricted scenes, a
tit-for-tat and dangerous and mysteri-
ous negotiation was launched on the
tense relationship between moun-
P 39
P 38
tains and water and the city. The fa-
mous Chinese scientist Qian Xuesen
shanshui 2P 40
4
P 41钱学森 (1911-2009) proposed the con- den area of the landscape. In seman- through the study and knowledge of wash trajectory to the continuous
cept of “Shanshui City” in the 1980s. tic dyslexia, the pleasure of cognition culture.” surrounding streamlines, linking and
In view of the emerging large-scale is deliberately delayed, and this delay recombining real life and cultural her-
cement construction, he put forward will lead to the pleasure of knowledge Starting from a line or a point, Jia itage. A single geography has equally
a new model of urban development production after a thousand turns. As Kemu re-fabricates and integrates the effect of linking and accommo-
based on Chinese Shanshui spirit, Jia Kemu wrote himself in The Artist's the landscape. At the same time, his dating the efficacy of every phenom-
which was meant to allow people to Manifesto: "In Ten Thousand Miles of thinking and critical power also tries enon. The psychological space is en-
“stay out of nature and return to na- Rivers and Mountains, through the to re-integrate the social structure dowed with a new perspective and
ture.” Qian Xuesen pointed out that form of a long scroll, I wanted to show and create a new social model, thus axis in Jia Kemu's landscape text trans-
modern cities' worship of power and the vast space, the mountains in their entering into the contemplation of formation. You don't have to escape
capital leads to maximization and util- stability and complex imminence history and urbanism. What appears from here, you don't have to belong
itarianism. “Buildings in cities should likened to culture. The water's Anto- is not just a distressed earth, but a there, to visit Jia Kemu's landscape is
not become living machines. Even the nyms, as a metaphor for intercultural human scene like the picture of the to return to a place that doesn't exist.
most powerful technology and tools communication, as a means of trav- world unfolded by the famous Chi- When you realize that you want to go
can never endow the city with a soul.” eling between mountains, albeit at nese artist Jiang Heng's The Butterfly back to the original landscape again,
great distances. In addition, a series of Judgment, 江衡《审判之蝶》(130x85 maybe when the landscape disap-
Jia Kemu peeked into the interior of of inscriptions and seals were added, cm, 2010, fig.7): pears, it is possible that even your fic-
the landscape, spliced the bewilder- part of the ancient cultural heritage tional landscape no longer exists.``If
ing landscape reality and time sec- of Eurasia , to show exactly how the When malice pervades the earth, we talk about the strangeness of the
tion, using the language codes of line, visual arts can more easily transcend Did you see it? environment, then painting is not as
dot and texture strokes, dyeing and cultural barriers, but the complexi- The world is so absurd good as mountains and water. If we
scratching, to mobilize the expressive ty and diversity that the written lan- Good people don't end well talk about the subtlety of brush and
levels of reality to penetrate the forbid- guage brings can only be accessed no one saves ink, then mountains and water are not
5
as good as painting" (Dong Qichang's
when everything is evil Painting Purpose) “以境之奇怪论，则
Did you see it? 画不如山水；以笔墨之精妙论，则山水决
Justice condenses into tears of sorrow 不如画。”董其昌 (1555-1636)《画旨》.
From which the butterfly of judgment The “Mountain and water text” can be
was born a substitute for the spatiality, urban-
Judge everything ism and architecture; mountains and
waters are also the sum of what our
When butterflies appear in the world eyes can reach. Jia Kemu’s psycho-
Did you see it? logical geography of mountains and
it will punish the sinner water in various media and fields may
a hundredfold for his crimes step by step delete the real one, and
destroy it finally achieve the goal of “de-moun-
tain and water-rization” ', which was a
When the due punishment comes beginning without an end. Only the
Did you see it? landscape is outside the landscape,
Butterfly big eyes and the landscape is outside the view.
And the people you hurt Only by finding a different kind of
crying sadly landscape outside the view, it can sur-
—The Butterfly of Judgment pass the brush and ink.
(Jiang Yutong,ZWIE)
Just like the picture of judgment un-
folded by butterfly changes, Jia Kemu
is a contemporary artist who alienates
P 43
P 42
landscapes. His point of view ranges
from the smoke cloud of his ink and
shanshui6 7
Lin Jiangquan, is a Chi-
nese contemporary art-
ist, architect and writer.
Since he's childhood, he
has been studing Poetry,
Calligraphy, Painting, Seal
cutting and Drama with
famous Masters from
the Yu Youren Standard
Cursive Calligraphy Soci-
ety. He was admitted to
Tsinghua University as
a teenager. His art prac-
tice includes Painting,
installation, Architectural
design, Modern Chinese,
Japanese and Korean
calligraphy and seal carv-
ing, Novels, Poetry, Film,
and Art criticism. He has
been invited to hold ex-
hibitions in well-known
art venues in Europe,
America, Asia, Ocean-
ia and Africa, including
the Portuguese National
Gallery, the University of
Lisbon, Sweden's Nation-
al Museum, Harvard Uni-
versity, the University of
Michigan, etc. As a visit-
ing professor, he lectures
at the University of Wales
TSD U.K, and is an invit-
ed tutor for Harvard Uni-
versity's Design course.
He was called by the Au-
thor of "Performance Art"
published by the Chinese
University of Hong Kong:
"There are three artists
who can deal with diffi-
cult problems today: Cai
Guoqiang, Xie Deqing
and Lin Jiangquan." He
also won the Ding Ling
Literature and Art Award
(1998), and his works are
P 44
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collected by domestic
and foreign art Museums,
Galleries, Foundations
and private collections.
shanshuiAt the Source - Paintings of
Jean-Baptiste Née
Amont
Lorsque nous cherchons à écouter, comme le fait un animal aux aguets,
nous commençons intuitivement par nous immobiliser, et rester silencieux.
Vides, tendus vers l'extérieur.
Je m'installe dans la montagne pendant quelques heures. Son mouvement
apparaît.
Les brumes remontent les pentes ; la pluie devient plus fine ; le vent se lève ;
la nuit s'approche. J'entends quelques éboulements épars.
Il ne me suffit pas de rester fixe : je dois aussi faire taire en moi quelqu'un qui
parle
constamment. Il nomme les choses, dresse devant elles un écran, y reproduit
le monde en trompe-l’œil, en schémas, et vit en vase clos dans ce décor savant
— aveugle aux choses mêmes. Je peins pour me taire, et lui rendre la vue.
1
Déchirer silencieusement l’écran des mots, voir le monde en amont. 2
At the Source
Translated by;: Didier Legaré-Gravel
When we try to listen, as a watchful animal would, intuitively,
we start by making ourselves still. Empty, turned outwards.
I set up in the mountain for a few hours. Its movement starts appearing.
The fog climbs up the slopes; rain gets thinner; the wind rises;
night approaches. I hear a few scattered rockfalls.
Standing still is not enough: inside me I must silence someone that talks con-
stantly. He names things, puts up a screen before them, on which
he reproduces the world in trompe-l’oeil, in diagrams, and lives in the vacuum
of this sophisticated set - blind to reality itself. I paint to stop talking,
and to restore his sight.
Silently tear apart this screen of words, and see the world at the source.
P 46
shanshuiYou can also read
