As an artist of the Chinese diaspora, my cultural background has had a profound influence on how I think and perceive space. My work consciously explores our perception of the structure of our external surroundings through reforming the spatial form of painting. In particular, I aim to reorganise the form of painting by observing nature’s very own structures, producing paintings that explore the balance and forms manifested in nature. In this sense, Chinese traditional philosophical interpretations of nature are an intrinsic part of my exploration, and my practice becomes cyclical: I observe nature’s structures to reform painting so that it aids further exploration of our perception of external surroundings. In this way, I turn the artist’s leading role to a facilitator of the viewer’s own perspective: the viewer’s way of seeing therefore becomes an intrinsic, personal, part of the discovery of the image as a whole.
To aid in my exploration I invented a hardened paint that detaches from backing and floats inside or in-between frames. It enables me to turn flat images into a three-dimensional sculptural painting, thereby contemporising the cavalier perspective and creating a situation where I can let the paint stand for itself in both space and time. Chinese philosophical traditions of natural order and rhythm are an innate part of my heritage. As in nature, balance in the paintings are created by the force of pulling between paints on each other, volume created by the conflict between the force working between two parts of the paint, and patterns created by accident through pushing and pulling the paint from one point to another.
This hidden interplay between forms and the invisible forces that connect them poses questions on the status of objects, which I aim to answer in my works through the exploration of the visual expression that demonstrates the constant balance between objects, where different forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world.
My engagement with Chinese philosophical ideas has helped provide a framework to make sense of the deeper connections that define our experience. My paintings have therefore become a conduit for introspection, where I confront the tensions and imperfections both around and within me, and practice the acceptance of following the natural course of things. My work therefore not only captures the essence of objects themselves, but aims to also capture our constant search for understanding and balance.
Through this search, I create connections between image and structure, and through this interaction I explore the possibility of sculptural painting and the order created by its internal logic. My sense-making and understanding of these issues is enabled by experimentation and by my individual knowledge, value system and cultural. This creates a tension I try to balance between the product of my own journey of discovery and the aim for my paintings to be a neutral enabler for the viewer’s own interpretation of their experience.