Remembrance of Realms Past
2018
In this series, drawing from traditional Chinese 'shan shuǐ’ painting and continuing the visual allegory of Requiem for the Present Eternal (2017) and Substitute for Sorrow (2017), the works serve as simulacra of scenic landscapes within the mind. These images depict mountains, traditionally revered in China as homes of immortals, with allusions to places like Guilin ("Forest of Sweet Osmanthus") and Chinese scholar's rocks known as 'Gongshi'.
Using calligraphic ink on sculpted Xuan paper, set against a pale blue Poly Film background and beneath linear Plexiglas, this construction offers an alternative to traditional ink wash painting. It blends classical techniques with new native and foreign styles. Remembrance of Realms Past explores the boundaries that envelop the relationship between the artist's hand and the attempt to capture the natural world. These depictions of nature transcend mere representations of the external world, embodying an ideology of nature.
The works serve as windows to imagined spaces rather than mere pictorial elements. From this organic foundation, landscapes in each painting coax the development of myriad ornamental forms, coalescing into compositions that engage the viewer's mind as objects of contemplation.