Dialogue
I've known James for decades. One of the most impressive things is that when he was young, he always wore black and white clothes and smoked a pack of Korean cigarettes that can't be bought in Macao. The name was "TIMES". The white cigarette box with stamp silver brand name "TIMES" matched him perfectly. There is also a subtitle on the cigarette box "timeless time" written in black, just as he said "smoking is just kill time", which is also how the exhibition title come from.
I asked him what he want to do for the exhibition months ago while he is still preparing, Installation? Painting? What do you want to express? He is always silent for a long time. Many things want to say but can't be said. You can feel his memory for decades in his brain, and then say thoughtfully, "I don't know how to express... Maybe it's about time".
When he is painting, he always listens to Dou Wei's songs. When he is looking for answers, he must be singing one of Dou’s most popular song "advanced animals": contradiction, hypocrisy, greed, deception, fantasy, doubt, simplicity, fickleness, strength, helplessness, loneliness,
vulnerability, tolerance, anger, complexity, hate, jealousy, insidious, competition, complaint, selfishness, boredom, metamorphosis, adventure, lust, kindness, fraternity, sophistry Can say, emptiness, sincerity, money, hell, heaven, greatness, insignificance, moderation, pity, joy, pain, war, peace, brilliance, gloom, complacency, sadness, hatred, revenge, tyranny and censure all seem to have no time to describe.
Time is everywhere. The earth is turning every day, sunrise and sunset. Even if it is invisible, people can feel its existence. Therefore, people tirelessly look for a carrier for time, such as clocks and scales, fine to hours, minutes and seconds.
What is the artist thinking?
He said: "the last solo exhibition was “Perpetual Splendour” six years ago. I haven't painted much in the past six years. If the canvas keeps recording my time, it must be stagnant, but everyone knows that time will not stop. It can only be said that this creation has been changing in my mind. With the years, it has become my art works until the day when I really make it happen".
Artists have something in common, constantly looking for beautiful professional words to beautify their incompetence or laziness. I'm curious how to express their illusory ideas through 2D works. Is it the picture of the big bang in space? It's all routine. I told him that there was no room for slowness in this era of science and technology. Why do you have to listen to old songs for inspiration and think for a long time before you can paint? Canvas is not binary, not even three-dimensional. People are talking about the meta universe!
He responded: "with or without...F the M universe".
Is it time / exsit (be) / not exsit (not to be)? Who knows will understand? As he often said, "it's useless to explain if you don't understand". Is that what he means?
The rest of the works can only be only understand with my incomprehensible eyes. In this
exhibition, he used the "red line" in his first solo exhibition 20 years ago, with more lines of different colors. The painting style is still the abstract texture of the past, splashing, dyeing and painting. His style is obviously influenced by two pass-away masters who deeply influenced
him - the late famous artists Kwok Woon and Mio Pang Fei in Macao, There are also traces of prints in his youth, which are the creative direction brought by time. He has always emphasized that "nothing" should be opposite to "being", or he can only understand its artistic conception with "Form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form. Emptiness does nor different from form, form does not differ from emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form." in the Heart Sutra. Time is the same. Its existence is "there", and there will be "nothing". Just like the shadow of hidden privacy on the daily rules, you can also know that time is secretly moving towards eternity.
His eleven works have different styles. How can they be connected into the almost persistent pursuit in his heart? Are those red lines that have been used for 20 years penetrating or binding? Is it inheritance or complacency? It may have to be proved by time, but at the very least, I see his inner peace and desire for beauty. I hope his artistic creation can be on the road again through this exhibition, without any fear!
On Chi
Curator