Yellow – Shaw Yan Chen Solo Exhibition

When our eyes open, at that moment, we see what is in front of us because of light. Vision arouses our desire, lead us to possess and to change our behaviours. The accumulation of life experience produces qualitative changes in our vision. Changes in society, science, values, beliefs, etc. have made visual language constantly innovate. This reminds me of the Impressionists of the nineteenth century. After the invention of easy-to-carry soft tin tubes of paint, painters began to leave the studio, the aristocracy, and memory. They turned to nature – in other words, they turned to their true selves. How should I put it? I think confronting nature means facing the original and unprocessed state, which is the instinctive and wild condition of human beings. So, the paintings after that stage begin to embrace human nature and truth; this also marked the origin of my interest.

With the development of science, the invention of photography and video cameras negated the point of realistic painting. With this has come a shift from objective realism to subjective realism. Painting creates a world, like a new realistic space. Painting began to become pluralistic, democratic. There arose a spirit of painting that relied on scientific and rational analysis, and there was also painting that reflected impulsive language that shows human instincts. With the changes and evolution over time, painting has been transforming with humans. For me, the biggest change in my painting, or the change in seeing, came from computer 3D animation, which I majored in at university. That kind of model is constructed virtually, in software, and at the same time it can be lit virtually, and textures can be added to make it look real. The process of creating an animated video through rendering is really amazing.

One second of video is actually made up of 24 or more still images – it is this that gives us an illusion of reality. Reality itself is always moving and changing, playing continuously like a cartoon, chewing on the meaning of time and space. The concept of continuous pictures can be seen in the construction of my paintings, with traces of lines and joins. Repeated points and lines also appear very often in my early works. The sense of dynamics comes from the repetition and continuity of slight changes. Arising from my research on visual presentation, I focus on the structure and inner psychological condition. Therefore, the colour on the surface seems to be torn apart by me, and painting with the most basic black and white is more realistic and authentic to me. Maybe because I lived in a city at the time, I thought grey was the colour of my surroundings. All feelings were eliminated by rapid flow, what was left to support me to continue was only the lowest spiritual structure.

In 2020, due to the pandemic, I moved back to Taidong, and my body, mind and soul were finally able to be recharged. It felt as if I had found a long-lost tranquillity. The scenery here has always been salvation. They are not big mountains and big rivers, but simplicity and tranquillity. Their saturated colours have diluted the original grey in my heart as time goes by, and the colours finally have a purpose: to be bright! When sun has just risen and shone orange light on the earth, as time goes by, it turns from yellow to white, and the slanted long shadows changed continuously. The appearance of the scenery continues to change over time, as if it is being sculpted, as if every period of time has its own peace. Indeed, the scenery in front of my eyes is composed of tranquillity.

What I paint and construct is not just a picture, but the free light and colour in the space through painting. The overlapping layers of brushstrokes and the splicing and combination of different colour blocks reflect the simple yet meaningful dialogue between the scenery and me, and the mutual balanced order in life. The simplified shape is a peaceful form for me. It is also a stable structure that I perceive from the environment. It is similar to the building blocks I played with when I was a child. I constantly find balance in the stacking. Through constant reassembly, landscape paintings allow me to see the light deep in my heart. The stable structure reflects the desire for existence and also regains the inner order. I think through landscape painting I have found a way of survival, especially in this troubled, anxious and conflict-ridden world, nature always manages to illuminate its original self.

Yellow, like the light of the sun, started my journey with colour. It did not only illuminate the road ahead, but also sowed the seeds and watered them with painting.

Shaw Yan Chen , 2024, August 1