Double Square Gallery is pleased to present Lin Hong-Wen's solo exhibition, Medium of Reified Immediacies, which runs from 5 September–17 October 2020. With his mastery of the abstract vocabulary, Lin employs diverse media such as painting, sculpture and environmental installation to transform his observation of the environment, perception of history and accumulated memories into visual expressions while communicating his care to the cultural, social and ecological environment. The exhibition marks Lin's first collaboration with Double Square Gallery, for which the gallery has specially invited art critic Beatrice Hsieh Pei-Ni to be the academic researcher of the exhibition. Featuring more than twenty sets of artworks, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to comprehensively explore Lin's multifaceted artistic journey. In addition to showcasing a fine selection of abstract paintings and metal sculptures created over the course of past three years, the first-floor space continues the 'Light Year Project,' a collaboration between the gallery and Samsung, to present a newly created environmental installation, Peering into the Mind, utilising Samsung's flat screens to perfectly represent natural temporalities unfolded through tree branches in nature.

The exhibition title, Medium of Reified Immediacies, is inspired by the artist's creative process of capturing inner perception stimulated by the external world. Lin's work stems from his gaze into the present state of life. Departing from perceptions and impressions, the artist uses indefinite forms and spontaneous lines and colours to create ingeniously constructed images and forms. It is like what the artist has stated, 'all imageries extend infinitely on the temporal axis. Inner perceptions are married with intangible, ephemeral knowledge and information to give rise to the symbolism of the mind.'

Lin's work does not use definite symbolism or concrete delineation. His abstract painting originates from his direct experience of nature, from which fleeting thoughts are captured with intuitive and spontaneous brushstrokes and colours that are in a bold, fine, thin and fluid manner. His surging thoughts are also converted into a different dimension with iron sculpture. The physical labor of slowly welding iron plates together balances the inner rhythm in painting. He preserves the unadorned qualities of iron, leaving it to gradually oxidise, combining refined imageries and vocabularies of mental image to portray his perceptions collected in the everyday life and observations of the natural environment. In addition to abstract painting and sculpture, the artist has extended his creative practice to environmental installation. He uses bamboo planks from typhoon-damaged oyster farms on the southwestern coast as well as driftwood as his main material, ingeniously incorporating them into his video installation to raise awareness of the environment and prompt observation and reflection of the current world and ecosystem. Regarding Lin's expression of feelings and perceptions with visual forms, Beatrice Hsieh stated, 'Lin's abstract painting is lyrical and poetic; his welded sculpture converts scraps into wonders; his landscape installation is as natural as nature can be; his writing conveys everlasting elegance; and his photography unites the visible and the invisible. These works are interrelated and mutually referencing, yet they can be appreciated respectively at the same time.'

This exhibition is a collection of approximately over 120 works by Lin in a diverse range of categories such as painting, sculpture and installation. It is the first comprehensive presentation of Lin's works over 30 years since his debut in the Contemporary Art Trends in the Republic of China held by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 1984.

Press release courtesy Double Square Gallery.