DAC Solo Exhibition Opening

a thread, a rip, a seed

一个线程，一个裂口，一个种子

A thread binds us together; A rip in the fabric of reality allows for a seed of understanding

Where do stripes conceal and where do stripes reveal?

Painting becomes a method of seeing:

How much can I see, how much do I miss?

Remaining open to complexity; recognising difference; working with rather than against limitations; perceiving things differently; acknowledgement of the unknown, partiality or incompleteness.

After a year and a half of living in China, my work here as artist/ researcher/ teacher is presently culminating in a solo exhibition at the DAC, Dimensions Art Centre, in Chongqing city centre, in a few weeks time. A community-run arts and research space, run by SFAI intermedia lecturer and director Mr Zeng Tu, the DAC invites international artists, curators and designers from all over the world to participate in their residency programmes, providing on-site accommodation and work engagement and presentation opportunities with the local community. You can find out more about their work here!

Detail from ‘Pearl Lake at Simian Shan’, Acrylic on canvas, 160cm x 80cm

The exhibition will contain a series of paintings, drawings, scrolls and objects that I have made in response to my time here. The mountains in and around the city of Chongqing in particular have become the medium through which notions of place, language, culture and human connection found an anchor in my work. Explorations in painterly means of concealing and revealing, imprinting and stripping away and altering and obstructing my subject matter have thus become metaphors for acknowledging and attempting to dismantle the prisms, blockades and impediments that often exist in cross-cultural dialogue.

At work in Huxi Commune Studios, Chongqing

When walking in these mountains, I felt truly connected to the people I met, to the history and culture of China, and to the land and ideals of the country itself. The elemental power of nature enables humans to transcend language, politics and culture: human differences and cultural/ linguistic boundaries disappear and constructs which normally narrow our vision fall away.

The act of walking, of allowing my feet to lead me as the landscape unfolds before my eyes, also aligned itself well to the process of allowing my materials to lead me in the studio. I could venture down different paths on both journeys, altering routes to allow for internal and external conditions. A small, quiet, repetitive step or gesture (such as the winding of thread) when I felt sluggish and slow, and unable to connect with the vibrant decisiveness that creativity often demands; the strongest, boldest strides or brushstrokes and throwing around of paint, when inspiration surges and I am invigorated by breath and action.

Near the Tibetan Labrang Monastery, Xiahe, Gansu Province 

View of the mountains at Simian Shan, Chongqing Province

‘Spirit Encounter’, Gouache and ink on paper, 15cm x 10cm

The mountain came to represent a spiritual portal to opening the heart, opening the eye, opening the mind. This portal only opens when the obstructions that prevent one from seeing clearly disappear. Often, many paths that lead to knowledge/ understanding/ connection/ wisdom remain hidden and concealed, and so objects such as lamps, glasses and mirrors, which alter, help or distort our vision become symbolic in my work. In Buddhism, the mirror too is a potent symbol, explained by Peter Matthiessen in his wonderful book The Snow Leopard:

“The reflection is neither inside or outside of the mirror, and thus things are freed from their ‘thing-ness’, their isolation, without being deprived of their form; they are divested of their materiality without being dissolved. This is part of the mirror teaching from the Atavamsaka Sutra, attributed to Nagarjuna, an Indian sage of the 1^st Century A.D who is also credited with the compilation of the Prajna Paramita Sutra, the fundamental text of Mahayana Buddhism.”

找 到 中 间 地带
zhǎo    dào    zhōng    jiān       dì        dài

Find the middle ground

In Buddhism sutras, the Middle Way is known as the first of the Buddha’s teachings following his enlightenment and refers to the teaching of living without extreme views and practices. This belongs to the Noble Eightfold Path, a series of precepts on living in peace and equanimity with fellow beings. The Middle Way also speaks of the emptiness, or void, between existence and annihilation, and is essentially a manner of freeing oneself from maintaining one-sided perspectives and polarising opinions that arise through illusion.

IFAD student at work

Similarly, finding a middle ground between different cultures, linguistic differences and cultural expectations has been key to the process of learning on all sides. I feel I’m learning just as much as my students, and this remains vital for a dynamic, reflective educational environment. In Rita Irwin’s conceptualisation of A/R/Tography, she summarises the practices of Artist/ Researcher/ Teacher, which I believe are intrinsically interconnected:

“Art is the visual reorganisation of experience that renders complex the apparently simple or simplifies the apparently complex. Research is the enhancement of meaning revealed through ongoing interpretations of complex relationships that are continually created, recreated and transformed. Teaching is performative knowledge/ knowing in meaningful relationships with learners.”

IFAD and IPMAD students engaged in discussion at the SFAI gallery

Currently, students over here are in the middle of hearing back from various institutions about their applications to study art and design in the UK, and are excitedly looking forward to their year or years abroad. Lives connect, knowledge is transmitted, and the ripples spread. Meanwhile, my exhibition, a thread, a rip, a seed opens here on Saturday 27^th April, and I’ll be posting its progress on here, my Facebook page and on Instagram (@ginnyelston). To end, here’s another lovely quote from Rita Irwin:  

“Living a life of deep meaning through perceptual practices that reveal what was once hidden, create what has never been known, and imagine what we hope to achieve.”