Between Simplicity and Reduction – 2018 Jhuwan Yeh Solo Exhibition
This exhibition, a continual project of the “Mountain Painting Series”, illustrates my recent ongoing artworks. Each exhibition is a movement while each artwork in each series documents the individual moment of each certain region.
Gil Artist Residence
During the residence, I was constantly on the action. If I wasn’t writing or documenting my mind states, I was sketching Akureyri from I’ve observed; Akureyri in pure white snow or gray melted snow. Reading the foreign Icelandic newspaper, via pictures and colors, I tried to decode the messages and appreciate the local aesthetics via direct view. Consequently, mountains, images and visual languages are my tools to communicate with nature. This “dialogue versus observing painting” poses itself as an exchange as “foreign culture” versus “local culture”.
“Foreign Culture”: Me – Jhuwan Yeh, a Taiwanese artist.
“Local Culture”: Akureyri’s regional and natural outlook.
Most of my artworks are created with direct view. First, I immerse myself with nature to feel the vibes of the region and its connection to the land and then I try to respond to them in my artworks. People are rarely my topics because I love the simplicity and tranquility of nature. While observing the nature, I obtain the enlightenment that each individual being is interconnected and interdependent. And yet, we don’t when it started that human beings and their development have continued to impose a great deal of insecure elements on nature and our land. These insecure elements highlight the “distance” between the human living environment and nature. The relationship between them shapes the “regional characteristic” of Akureyri. When I switch off the direct view and try to see the nature beyond its apparent outlook, I can’t stop contemplating where the “distance” between nature and us exists? Is it in space or in our minds? Is the “distance” a manifestation of fear or conquering? Thus, I choose to feel the nature and essence of our land within the “distance”.
The materials utilized in my artworks are cotton paper, glue made of flour and water, linen, calicoes, ink, white powder made of shells and minerals found in rocks. I paint nature and I hope my artworks are created with natural organic ingredients. To me, this is my way to show my respect to earth and nature.
An art creator, in my opinion, is merely a messenger. My artworks and how they are presented are all media utilized to tell their stories.
More Informations:
Participating the Exhibition:
These small blocks/houses were made with the local newspaper according to the various colors. I’d like you to choose a house and contemplate the distance between you and the land. Please also select the painting that best describe your inner landscape, then measure your “distance” to nature and finally place the house there. And if you’re willing to, please sign your name on the small house. At the last hour of the exhibition, you can take your house with you.
Translated by Sho Huang
Comments