“Implicit Memory” - Works by Lei Chek On

 

Implicitness

 

"Without a single word,

the essence is conveyed.

Without speaking of misery,

a passionate sadness pervades.

There is a universal power that governs everything,

with that it popples up and down.

At times it is like the endless pouring of wine,

or a blossoming flower restrained in the autumn weather.

As if the remote empty dust in the air,

or the fluctuating bubbles on water,

it gathers and scatters,

all embracing and revealing itself as nothing but one.”

 

- Si Kong Tu (Tang Dynasty), “The Studies of Twenty-Four Poetic Styles”

 

 

A few years ago I have known Lei Chek On's paintings before meeting his person. Later on when we met, he would occasionally talk about his pursuit of art and spirituality. I have always felt that his artworks were not easy to be understood. His imagery is often obscure and his words scarce, while his understanding of his own works are mainly based on his intuition and subconscious experiences (such as dreams). As the curator of his current solo exhibition, I try to examine the various aspects of such means of expressions, which eventually led to my reading of “Implicitness”, the eleventh poem of "Studies of Twenty-Four Poetic Styles" by the poet Si Kong Tu, in the late Tang Dynasty, which in turn is quoted at the beginning of this preface.

 

The ancient poetry aesthetics and poetry theory monograph created by Si Kong Tu is composed of twenty-four four-character poems in its form. These twenty-four poems not only outline and depict the characteristics of various poetry styles, but also the formation of various artistic styles in depth through a creative angle. The work made considerable contributions to poetry creation, criticism and appreciation. It was valued by the poetry circle at the time when it was first published and had a significant influence on later generations. Concerning the works of our young artist Lei Chek On, will it be an appropriate approach using poetry aesthetics in their understanding?

 

Lei Chek On was born in Guangdong in 1994 and moved to Macau in 2013. He graduated from the Macau Polytechnic Institute of Fine Arts with a bachelor's degree in sculpture in 2017. In the same year, Lei joined the Macau Art For All Society (AFA) and participated in the Macau Autumn Salon and the Macau AFA 11th Anniversary exhibition in 2018. The exhibition "Implicit Memory" - Works by Lei Chek On is his first solo exhibition, and it is the second part of the AFA’s 2021 annual project "Healing Colours" - Young Artists Exhibition Series.

 

In 2018, I have written a short text for Lei at the 11th Anniversary Exhibition of the AFA, introducing his works and mentioning how the artist used abstract techniques to depict the "world" he saw, "It is a world that is withering and illusory. He wants to hold on to something, but is cautious of obsessive grasping. Therefore he purifies the image he sees through abstract brushstrokes, creating the ‘Condensation Series’ made during his studies. The simplicity in his abstract paintings is remarkable and impressive. But his purpose is not merely to ‘simplify’ but to filter into new shapes and spaces. [...] Together with his two paintings “Shenlu” and “Sertar”, we see that after the training of abstract painting techniques, Lei Chek On begins to formally create his beloved world of myth. ‘Sertar’ is in fact the artist's hidden suggestion to himself. He is not willing to be bound by the geographical scene, nor is he willing to merely vent his emotions through the process of painting. He is restlessly moving between the figurative and the abstract. And it is a spiritual calling, with which he finally embarks on his own path."

 

On his artistic path, Lei considers the relationship between outlook on life and universal values. There is a series of works in the exhibition about various issues in the current society. In the series of "Weaving Voices", the artist explains, "The work is painted with half-transparent colours, different colours represent different voices in the society, and they have been overlapped into different layers. The upper layer is trying to show their own colours but is inevitably influenced by the background colours.” At first glance, these two paintings look like some public housing clusters in Hong Kong, where the lives of urban people are compressed into existence reduced to symbols. This abstract technique can be said to be quite "subtle" expression. Then came the series of "Iok Iok" and "Tun Tun". These two pieces which look like two pieces of processed "pork meat" are actually made from Pink Clouds stone (Caineite). The artist might have imitated Marcel Duchamp who signed on his famous urinal, and paints a seal on each of the ready-made stones. Lei uses these two pieces of "pork" to satirise people's tragic fate in which the sole purpose of life is about food and fashion, without considering further what happiness truly is until we die.

 

From the painting "Golden Avenue", which is painted on the map of the Area A of Macau New Urban Zone, from the Roundabout of Hou Kong to the artificial island in the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Macao Port Administrative Zone, to the painting "No Man's Land", depicting the old photos of the Statue of Liberty and the illusory Sacred Heart Jesus, to the three-dimensional work "Demolition", which uses traditional houses as units decorated with golden roofs and the Chinese character of "demolition" painted on them, the artist takes the current social affairs as a foothold and applies implicit and abstract techniques to narrate his viewpoint. Returning to the theory of Si Kong Tu’s "Studies of Twenty-Four Poetic Styles", it was written that “Without speaking of misery, a passionate sadness pervades”, meaning that even though without direct language to express the suffering, the anxiety contained in between the words is enough to make people feel the distress and ponder upon their hidden meanings.

 

In this first solo exhibition, Lei Chek On’s "world" appears to have evolved from a landscape on earth to a wider universe. Among them, "The Past on Mars" series started from some space images and then evolved into a series of  "inner scenery" paintings, Lei explains that when he paints, he enters a state of "withdrawal from self", as if he wants to release the memory hidden in a corner of the subconscious mind, and draws what the inner eye sees thus achieving a satisfying state of mind. I imagine Lei sitting in front of the canvas, doing the same action over and over again. This reminds me of the phenomenon of "Implicit Memory", which is a kind of long-term memory, which refers to technology, process, or "how to" memory. They are sometimes stored in procedural memory, which is triggered when a person performs a certain physical action. Examples of implicit memory include learning to ride a bicycle, typing, using a musical instrument (similar to painting with a brush?), or swimming. Once internalised, implicit memory can be very durable. I cannot help but imagine whether the inner world that Lei sees comes from the soul’s ancient past lives, which were not necessarily on the earth, but from a more distant corner of the universe...

 

Certainly, this kind of imagination cannot be concretely verified. Si Kong Tu wrote, “There is a universal power that governs everything, with that it popples up and down.” If there is a master energy behind everything, the artwork should be able to go with its flow. The textures and shapes seen by the eyes of the soul are actually depicted by one stroke after another. In the series "Mizumu" and "The Sea", the artist uses the overlapping effects between the paint, the glass and the wood grains. The penetrating effect creates a series of abstract paintings with rich colours and unique textures. These paintings are like the existence of various planets, would they be extraterrestrial images of Lei Chek On’s remote "implicit memory"?

 

Looking at the series of abstract paintings between water and wood textures, I particularly like the work "Inner and Outer". The reflection of wood itself and the dark blue texture create two upper and lower spaces, expressing depth and extended perception. The artist enters from a microscopic point of view, as if he feels the colours and light extending from the faint subconscious stream to the nostalgia of the vastness of the universe. The "implicit" artistic expressions are diverse and flexible. “At times it is like the endless pouring of wine, or a blossoming flower restrained in the autumn weather”, waiting to be released. "The remote empty dust in the air” can be the painting of “Tin Kou Eclipse”. “The fluctuating bubbles on water” are the red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, and purple sea that flows and penetrates unto the viewer's retina. And then "it gathers and scatters, all embracing and revealing itself as nothing but one.” The deep and shallow textures are repeated infinitely, highlighting nothing more than a small part of the whole, insignificant, but pointing to the untold admiration for the indescribable way of the Nature.

 

Perhaps, it is the implicitness and subtlety of Lei Chek On’s artistic expressions.

 

 

Curator

Alice Kok