Christine Ay Tjoe's latest series of paintings are grotesque and beautiful, both unsettling and mesmerising.
Presented at White Cube Mason's Yard, London, for her solo exhibition Lesser Numerator (17 November 2023–13 January 2024), these two-metre-wide oil on canvas paintings are the culmination of Ay Tjoe's last year working in her studio in Bandung, Indonesia.
Ay Tjoe's abstract expressionist style balances rawness and refinement. In Lesser Numerator #06 (2023), for example, gestural lines trace an enigmatic form that could be an unfurling flower or insect silhouette, depending on the angle.
In these paintings, Ay Tjoe portrays both the physical—at times suggesting organs, blood, feathers, a bird's nest, or hair—and the metaphysical, with representational aspects of the painting often symbolising darker facets of humanity.
Such symbols include creatures and animals used to 'reveal the potential of the inner evil within the human being', as the artist told Ocula Magazine in 2016. Colours also have meaning in her work, with blue representing hope in her 2021 series 'Blue Cryptobiosis'. The emotional tenor of these paintings swerves wildly from joy to anxiety.
Influenced by the natural surroundings of her studio in Bandung, Ay Tjoe's paintings often centre around nature and its intricate connection to humanity. This theme is evident in various aspects of her practice, ranging from the depiction of her mythical plants, known as 'xeno-shoots', to the distinctive figurative-abstract forms observed in her 'Blue Cryptobiosis' series.
