Distance of light．Unknown land: Liao Chin-Hsiang Solo Exhibition
Exhibition： 2021.05.25-2021.07.07
Opening Reception： 2021.06.06 3:00PM
Distance of light．Unknown land: Liao Chin-Hsiang Solo Exhibition
John Berger wrote in his book Ways of Seeing: ”Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.
“But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relationship between what we see and what we know is never settled.”
Thus painting is created under this uncertainty.
The core of my creation is about binary tension—subject versus object, continuity versus discontinuity and light versus shadow, as I search for the difference (which is unknown) that lies in the distance in between them.
Meanwhile the binary tension in subject/object, reality/fiction, continuity/discontinuity and light/shadow makes them one, for they do not exist against the other. The binary pair completes and complements each other.
And the uncertainty between them is a distance produced by time.
After piece of scenery (a realm unknown) is seen, it becomes a blurred image of memory, of picture and of painting. Now it is the painting itself.
As time goes by, I continuously force myself in a certain distance. Due to my curiosity to the unknown, I explored, experimented with and investigated the spontaneity created by automatism on my paintings in progress continuously. This is for the purpose of creating the possibility of a binary pair in tension. I ponder the distance between my thinking and my work; but this distance in itself is seeing.
The distance of light is not a discussion about light in physical aspect, nor is it the light from Western art history which is widely discussed. It signifies the distance that occurs in between a painting and the sight and mind of its viewer. It is the inner interpretation of the painting by its viewer.
I apply pearlescent silver paint for the purpose of forming this distance between viewers and paintings. This produces a polarized light effect on canvas, which varies at different viewing distance and angles. Due to this effect, viewers may shift their distance from the work and thus recognize this distance.
This awareness of distance may furthermore kindle their inner interpretation and senses, so that they can hold a dialogue or an interchange with the paintings.
The distance of light lies in between sight and soul.
