Motion Perpetual – Christopher Ku Early Works

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Preface

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“Motion Perpetual - Christopher Ku Early Works” showcases over 29 pieces of the artist’s early paintings since 1992. This exhibition comprises many of his unseen before early paintings after his graduation from the Royal College of Art, signifying a period where Ku gradually transitioned from a figurative creation style, into a more abstract style of painting. The narrative representation no longer satisfied Ku’s ambition in challenging the boundaries of canvases and colours. He also developed his own unique visual language in metaphysical forms and applied arts to his reflection on human and social behaviour.

 

The world is intimately interconnected, and in this vast and boundless universe, civilisations and cultures become ideas over the course of time. The synchronous development of history and civilisation is inseparable from the mélange and calling of art, precisely as artists of different periods focus on different things from one another, establishing their own insights within history. In the history of painting, successive painters have endowed the art of painting with a multidimensional thinking and dialectics approach, and different artists’ expression of space have changed drastically several times, in accordance with changes within the knowledge. This can all be traced back to the systematic introduction of perspective theory into painting by Renaissance artists of the 15th century. Later, in the 19th century, Paul Cezanne broke through the limitations of focal perspective, using the subjectivity of viewing experience. 

On the other hand, Chinese literati paintings from the Song Dynasty had emphasised on the artistic rhythm of an artwork, by using scattered perspectives, to present the magnificent landscape within a painting’s horizon. Ku inherits these experiences of his predecessors, but he refuses to be uninventive in his thinking. He breaks through our preconceived notions of three-dimensional space, whilst challenging previous understanding of spacetime, of consciousness, the universe, and of life itself. All the while, showcasing the creativity and plasticity one could achieve, with painting.

 

Once, surrealism tried to utilise figurative or symbolic expressions, to describe consciousness from an outside point of view, in order to resolve the differences between dreams and reality. However, the world is everchanging, and as a witness to the existence of life, there are still wisdom in the universe far beyond our imagination as a species. Each individual’s perspective is unique, and in Ku’s paintings, he offers a new perspective to our understanding of consciousness and space. Ku has experimented with his artistic expression, such as through the extension from converting paintings from three-dimensional spaces to four-dimensional spacetime, and even the combination of multi-dimensional spaces. These all reflect the avant-garde insights Ku has employed in his creations, in as early as the 1990s.

 

One perhaps need to travel back in time, to the late 80s and early 90s, to fully appreciate how epoch-making these insights were. This was a period when everything had yet to be developed, a time before the technological boom, where using computer for artistic creation was still an uncommon thing, and the era of image digitisation has yet to come. Our visual experience were relatively direct, singular, and static. The limited viewing experience we had, were shaping, and restricting our understanding of the concept of space. At the time, due to Ku’s habit of repeatedly scribbling and modifying his painting on canvases, which made the images on them to appear transparent and overlapping. Gradually, he developed this into his transparent coating technique, which creates a superimposition of the images, and giving the static canvas a dynamic effect. as a result, the viewers are led into a vigorous abstract field, guided by the fading out and reappearance of organic objects and symbols, and the impression that were left as images shifted. The advancement in the use of the various visual effects were, at the time, a radical breakthrough, whether it was for Ku's creative process or people's viewing experience.

 

Consciousness itself is formless and colourless, and cannot be measured nor mapped, yet Ku was able to give it a vivid image within his paintings. Projecting scientific and philosophical thinking into his creations, Ku combined the past, the present and the future into the same body of work. By adding temporality into the rich and complex picture, the overlapping of translucent layers breaks the preconceptions of what we have of three-dimensional spaces. Images intersperse, stack, and intertwine between different layers; various elements has been simultaneously integrated into the vast metaphysical space without being mutually exclusive. Ku’s works lead the viewer into a profound, and abstract space with their immensity. These early works reflect Ku's commitment to revolutionise painting, including how paintings can be ushered into the future, and the possibilities for paintings to convey messages. They also reflect Ku’s vision and his foresight in the concept of space, time, and consciousness, long before the arrival of the digital information age.

 

Ku uses colours, symbols, and multi-perspective spaces to lead the audience through a journey into his bewildering realm. Influenced by existentialism, Ku uses the purest of art forms to begin a journey of interpretation about our societal systems, and of life itself. His strong beliefs and perseverance in art are still evident in his works today, more than 30 years later.

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《動念·谷敏昭早期作品展》

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​序言

 

是次《動念·谷敏昭早期作品展》展出藝術家谷敏昭逾十四幀於1992年起創作的早期繪畫作品，藝術家透過是次展覽展示由英國皇家藝術學院畢業後的畫作，帶出藝術家從學院時期的具像創作開始轉向抽象風格的重要階段。90年代起，谷氏放棄具像畫敍事模式，轉而探索形而上的繪畫語言，以藝術對生命意義及社會制度作出反思。

 

萬物是互聯的，文明和文化在浩瀚無邊的宇宙中，經年月滙聚成意念，歷史和文明的同步發展離不開和藝術的交接和呼應，每一個時期藝術家關注的事物也不盡相同，過往的藝術家無不從宏大的歷史中建立洞見。繪畫史上，歷代畫家們賦予繪畫多元的思考和辯證，藝術家對空間的表現方式隨著認知上的改變經歷了幾次顛覆性變革，這可追溯至15世紀歐洲文藝復興時期藝術家系統性地把透視理論引入繪畫，19世紀保羅．塞尚以觀看經驗的主觀性突破焦點透視的限制；另一邊廂，中國沿自宋代的文人畫強調作品的意韻，以散點透視的形式把山水的壯闊景觀呈現於橫軸之上。藝術家谷敏昭承接前人的經驗，卻不甘停留於僵化的思維，他睿意突破固有三維空間的認知，並挑戰前人對時空、意識、宇宙和生命的理解，托展了繪畫的創造力和可塑性。曾經，超現實主義嘗試以具像或象徵式的表達手法從外部描述意識，並將夢與現實間的衝突消解，但萬物是恆變的，人作為生命存在的見証者，宇宙的智慧大大超越我們的想像範圍，個人的見証是如此獨一無二，而谷敏昭的畫作，則為人對意識及時空的理解提供新的面向。藝術家表達手法上作出實驗性的嘗試：從三維空間推展到四維時空，甚至是多維空間聚集，都反映谷氏的創作早於90年代已有高瞻遠足的洞見。

 

觀者或許需要穿越視覺文化歷史，回到80年代末至90年代初，才能設身處地理解藝術家劃時代的洞見：那是一切尚待發展的時期，藝術創作對電腦的應用並不普及，而圖像數碼化的時代尚未來臨，人的視覺經驗相對直接、單一、靜止，這些觀看經驗上的條件和限制都在形塑人類對空間概念的理解。其時谷敏昭因在畫布上重覆塗改畫面的習慣讓畫作出現透疊效果，隨之發展而成的透薄塗層技法，在靜態的畫布上呈現出重影和動態效果，有機物和符號的淡出與再現、位移留下的軌跡，龐大的體塊在畫面於前方引領觀者進入雄渾的抽象領域，種種視覺效果的推進，在當時看來，不論對谷氏的創作歷程，或是對人的觀看經驗來說都是激進的突破。

 

意識本身無形無色，不可測繪，但谷敏昭卻在畫作中賦予它鮮活的形象。把科學和哲學性的思考投射於創作中，谷氏把過去、現在、將來構築於同一個主體內，把時間性加進豐富錯雜的畫面中，半透明圖層的交疊破解了人對三維空間的前設，影象穿插、堆疊並交織於圖層與圖層間，多種元素同時融注於遼闊的形而上空間中卻不相互排斥，谷敏昭的作品以其龐然的面積引領觀者進入深邃的抽象空間，這些早期作品體現了藝術家對繪畫進行革新的擔當，當中包括繪畫可以被推向未來的方式，以及圖象承載訊息的可能性。這些早期作品反映藝術家早於虛擬信息時代到來前，藝術家對空間、時間、意識的構想已深具遠見。

 

谷敏昭以色彩、符號及多重透視空間的表現形式帶領觀眾遊走他的奧秘境界。受着存在哲學所影響，谷氏以最純粹的藝術形式開展其對體制及生命的詮釋旅程。他對於藝術的信念及堅持， 在三十多年後的今天，依然在其作品中表露無遺。