HdM GALLERY Beijing is pleased to present the exhibition Motive and Narrative which includes recent works by 5 artists: it opens on July 15, 2023. This exhibition aims to present the 'what' and 'why' of artworks created by five artists in a more stereoscopic way. The exhibition will last until August 19, 2023.
In some scenario, the spiritual 'existence' is more desperately closer to reality than the 'material' one. Getting rid of serious linguistic techniques, the 'story' gave the work a certain form, and the 'story' behind the work serves as a carrier: it can carry more of the deeper personal emotions behind the superficial inspiration of our self-exploration and creation; The ritual of the 'story' is not a painting technique to escape away, and neither is it a purely intellectual exercise. Telling 'story' has become the earliest and most elementary thinking mode of human beings since humans can communicate. The desire of a 'story' is way to satisfy people's curiosity directly, and this exhibition is based on this premise. Putting five artists with very different creative methods and appearances in the same space and use their respective creative motivations as devices to spy on their recent comprehensive forms that can be understood and perceived.
Leslie Amine was born in Paris but her parents come from the republic of Benin. She travels around the world before a creative phase and maps out a vast universe by using her travel notes and photographic journals. As Leslie's favourite writer and her biggest influence, Victor Segalen undoubtedly played a great role in the underlying logic of her creation. As one of the first Western writers who subtly and consciously blended Chinese language and culture into European literary works, Segalen advocated a renewal of the values of traveling and initiated a search for an 'other place' to isolate himself in daily life. Therefore, conflicts between civilisations, alien identities, African anecdotes, travel, and memories have always been the focus of Leslie's creation. When the audience's vision journeys through the mystery underlying Leslie's flowing and superimposed paint, they are led by its complex emotions to act as detectives in a secret world located under the paintbrush.
The love for comic strips directly affects Chen Han's handling of forms while he creates. In the 1970s, when all kinds of resources were scarce, the most popular thing for artists was to go to the rental stalls of Xiaorenshu on the street to read 'comics'. The most typical structure in comics is that of the 'decisive moment'. Because each frame presents the most exciting instant, the character or place which can connect all the past and future of the story together. When he was young, he tried his best to remember all the details of a scene he had witnessed and draw them out from memory after he went back home. This is one of the reasons why Chen Han ignited his passion for painting. This also became the reason why he likes to construct a scene in his works in which all the characters present have a strong story behind them. The artists are like silent film directors: they can use body language, facial expressions, scenes and lighting to simulate a fleeting emotion, they are expecting the viewer to experience emotions at their command.
'Balsam Flower' series exhibited this time which comes from Chen Li's childhood memories of using Balsam Flower to dye her nails when she was growing up in the countryside. Whether it is 'Balsam Flower in the Rain', 'I Grow Pearl in the Balsam Flower' or 'Balsam Flowers as Offerings', the various forms of Balsam Flower have been ground into 'mineral pigments' by the artist and made by extremely microscopic individuals minimise entry points into broader thinking. After she went to other foreign country to study, she gradually realised that in the relatively closed rural areas of Asia, women's expression and pursuit of desire have long been placed in the context of stigmatisation or division. In her view, while female desires are marginalised, aesthetic pursuits are often ignored too. When women in the disadvantaged areas overlapped with 'Female' Gender, women will face a double 'aphasia'. The blooming balsam flower are more like a kind of fluid self-expansion, reflecting the artist's deep understanding of female character in the contemporary context.
Christopher Orr is known for his consistently delicate and classical approach. He deliberately chooses a miniature scale to depict absurd and ethereal dreams, and making the paintings pursue the viewing experience of precious jewels. The experience of working in a publishing house allowed him to immerse himself in the old newspapers and old magazines of the last century that were readily available, and the atmosphere of the old times permeated Auer's canvas unconsciously. Orr's work has a strong archival urge, and his studio houses an impressive collection of National Geographic magazines from the 1930s to the 1970s, postwar family photos and family holiday snapshots, and mid-70s weekend supplements advertisement. These sources are his important inspiration: images spanning many sources and twentieth-century archives, housed in binders in Orr's studio, 'chopped up,' 'reassembled,' 'collaged,' and 'reassembled.' Editing' translates complex mental states and narrative environments through visual residues.
Zhao Yinou's working method refuses to use fragments of information as decoy, she instead revolves around the gushing out of strong emotions as filling. Her latest work is still able to see the sharp, personal, intense energy. This series originated from the 'Intermission' project in the 'Cloud Sculpture' exhibition of Maysong Art Museum this year: within one month, the cameras in the exhibition hall recorded the traces of the artist's actions in the studio from morning to night, and the theme of the work also originating from the artist's personal experience in the past year and the principle of 'synchronicity' echoed by the novels in the form of notes that he carries with him, the whole series reveals a kind of divination that is jointly constructed in the field of psychological state and perception story'.
Press release courtesy HdM GALLERY.
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