Glance back – Light, Shadow and Slowness

The tranquil prospect of Chang Wen-Ching

Curator: Tsai Hsien-Yiu

Opening

Gaze, though short, is peaceful. Long perspective allows me to keep distance from what I saw, just like the scenery on the skyline during my travels. A reflected view goes into my eyes unintentionally, but calms and soothes my unsettled mood: from up and down, from fluctuation to peace. Finally, I see light and colour through cloud, across the skyline. I am also able to observe my daily practices and experiences.

Life should be able to take a break at a particular moment and space, if the moment and space are worthy. In so doing, we are able to reflect in ease and peace. Emptiness should be persevered in daily life, because it allows feelings to add colours. Such desires should be rewarded in the flow of life, because they are humble things.

Therefore, I reorganise myself and prepare to depart. I look back to the past and try to re-capture the lost time with my own interpretations and stories … I want to share them. I do so through paintings: some are as surreal as a collage, some as abundantly elegant as poetry. Colours and melodies are added into life. Tales and stories are passed on. 

Timeless deep travel, monophonic tunes

The window itself becomes the view, access to the world; and yet it also transforms into a theatre within our imagination. In paused time, it seems like works of art are out for us to contemplate. Only aloneness is left as heart turns simple. And only monophonic tunes remain in the throbbing heart. The earth becomes the platform, while the blue sky is the curtain: sun, moon and stars are lights. When the curtain is opened, pictures come one after another, reflected in deep thought and projected on the stage.

There is a cloud in every picture in the “Meditation” and “Windows” series. Sometimes the cloud is outside the windows, sometimes inside. The cloud carries the dream and flies along the skyline, waiting for the dream to come true. The scenery outside the windows embraces endless imagination, self-appreciation, and the resonance of internal monophony.

Slowness, Light, and Shadow

Where light and shadow meet, it is at the point of ‘black’, where the curtain of the universe opens, in complete silence and emptiness. At this moment there is no separation between shape and shadow; only a wait for light to break through sky and separate it from earth. The works of the “Silence” series are made to express the first light of day. When the dark curtain of the sky is lifted, time is not detected as it moves so slowly; and yet every subtle change indicates a shift in time and space, from coldness to gentle warmness. The falling, hair-like light wakes up the world.

There is a deep love of ‘slowness’ in daily life, a pace which is completely the opposite of hurry. In embracing slowness, the soul gains an opportunity to calm and settle; the movement and flow of life can be oriented. It turns out that the flow of light and shadow is not only part of daily practice, but also determines the pace of life. In the universal tempo of slowness, light and shadow meet and merge together, reflecting each other and eventually becoming one.