| Project title: | In Quiet Pursuit of the Self(less) |
| Location: | Mulan Gallery, Singapore. |
| Date(s): | 26 May – 8 July 2023 |
Artist Statement
My practice is located at the intersection of abstract expressionism, minimalism and colour field painting, and examines how painting and mindfulness can be combined as both artistic expression and methodology for self-care and well-being. My interests in mindfulness, movement and energy come from my practise of Buddhist Vipassana meditation and Taijigong (太极功), an ancient Chinese system of healing and mental cultivation that focuses on channelling, circulating universal energy within and without the body. Colour is used as the focus and object of meditation to develop mindfulness and awareness, in the same way the breath is used as the object of focus within Vipassana meditation. Buddhist concepts of emptiness and impermanence are also explored through colour’s physical and metaphysical nature, and its inherent ‘empty’ existence as an amalgamation of light, matter and perception.
Drawing inspiration from abstract painters such as Agnes Martin, Stanley Whitney and Mary Heilmann, I use colour and abstraction to convey energy, optimism, order, purity, simplicity, and the spiritual. Heilmann’s wabi-sabi approach of ‘making things in the simplest, most basic way, in order to let nature be a part of the creation’ informs my approach to painting. By incorporating meditative, improvisational techniques into painting, I explore the myriad possibilities of colours’ ability to evoke different moods and emotions, allowing them to become structures and objects of meditation for myself and the viewer.
About the Project
The public facing outcomes for this project consists of two parts: an indoor exhibition, and a site-specific performance. The exhibition, In Quiet Pursuit of the Self(less), features a series of abstract watercolour and acrylic paintings that explore repetitive mark-making and colours which fade, bleed and recede into space, as a chance to discover new possibilities in colour harmonies and form. The artworks reflect and record the passage of time, creating a sense of rhythm and energy, tension between movement and stillness, randomness and order, and precision versus chance. In several paintings, the grid is used as an underlying structure to find simplicity and balance, and a sense of joy and optimism. My project attempts to address the following questions:
How can the process of painting on translucent papers create meditative states with colour and light? How can meditative spaces for an audience also be created through their installation in a range of sites?
This exhibition is supported by a site-specific performance, Peace Flags, held at a collective artist group show in a public space. At the site, audiences are guided towards a meditative, painting experience to enhance and promote both individual and collective self-care. Peace Flags recalls the idea of simply focusing our awareness in the present by slowing down to see more. Participants are taught to observe the way colours and water run across the paper, and to enjoy being in the moment without judgement of the paintings outcomes. French curator Nicholas Bourriaud describes this form of art-making as Relational Aesthetics, in which the artist plays the role of a facilitator rather than a maker, giving audiences ‘access to power, the means to change the world’.
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