Forest Series

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Acrylic on canvas

70x100 cm、80x100 cm、100x150 cm、110x160 cm、112x200 cm、130x232 cm、150x200 cm

2019

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The process of creating a painting is similar to observing one’s interaction with the surrounding environment, as fragmented life experiences are assembled, combined and extended into something new through the process. The creative subject of my painting in recent years has evolved around my travels, hiking trips into forests and the impact upon seeing the glacier lagoon in Iceland. I have become fascinated with using changing landscape and material forms as a metaphor, such as the capricious weather in the mountains, fog and mist, ancient forests, minuscule plants, glaciers, to reimagine and represent the faded past.

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Enveloped by the extremely changeable climate of Iceland, one cannot help feeling a sense of cruelty in its alluring sceneries—small icebergs floating on the lagoon, diamond-like ice from crumpling glaciers scoured down to the beach, tourists busy with taking photos, and rocky and debris soil revealed from retreating glaciers. From the fierce wind to the unending coldness, all the drastic climate changes continue to remind us that surviving on this land means to face the uncontrollable power of nature. However, what one sees here is the consequence caused by humanity’s control of resources and pursuit of desire and power, which have gradually eaten away the nature without us being aware of it.

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Each trip to the mountains is a memorable time for catching up with friends, conversing with oneself and being immersed in the forests. Everyone has a different reason to visit the mountains and forests. A simple trip into the mountains allows one to reflect upon the complex humanity, ecosystem and different aspects of history.

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The language of painting possesses its independent context and logic. On a thin, flat two-dimensional canvas, one uses brushstrokes, colors and materials, combined with designs of arrangement and juxtaposition, to incorporate the element of ambient light to unfold ways of perceiving the images and a sense of spatiality. The element of ambient light and the variable quality of light have always been factors as important as colors and brushstrokes in my work. The interruptions in viewing – fragmentedness, scintillation, surprise, doubt, concealment, disappearance, re-emergence – are they not precisely the diverse faces of the everyday life in modern time? Each image that I was interested in served as a starting point of my painting. I did not know what it would eventually become. I spent long hours with it during the creative process, constructing a mutual dialogue. In essence, the image has not merely been constructed as a delineation of nature; instead, it represents my thoughts on the self and the social phenomena of “disappearance” and “re-construction” at moments of quietude in this rapidly changing time.

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