text by Guo Jau-Lan
"Using the human body as the metaphor, our index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger symbolize animals, and the thumb symbolizes plant life. Human being are located at the tip of the middle finger, farthest away from the heart. Moving forward to the lower edge of the palm, we find lower and lower forms of microorganism, until we reach down to the wrist, where a multitude of blood vessels merge into one. They are the fungi and microorganisms. Further down, distinctions between animals and plants blur and fade. Even so there is still life beyond this point, pass through shoulders... and then reach close to your heart. These creatures are the Mushi. They are life as pure form. Their shape and physical appearance are ambiguous." (Excerpt from "Mushi Shi-Bug Master", Volume I, "The Green Base".)
Physical Body is no more the borderline of perception; galloping vision continues to expand the horizon of visible dimension. Universe runs incessantly, and vitality lies amidst its swift movements.
The spaces through Tung Hsin-ru’s paintings are not purely mental images fabricated by artists. Neither are they dissections of rational structures. They are summons of the distant prototypes of the primitive universe, profound and unfathomable with forms. The mirages, subtle and intractable, always enigmatically hover between forms or images, animals or plants, symbols or reality, frustrations or dexterity, representation or improvisation, rituality or reality. The canvases teem with seemingly contradictions and confrontations, large landscapes in heterogeneous coexistence with small decorations, interacting with each other in substance and in form. Among them, one can envision the grand scale of an immense universe: shining flows of light emerging slowly from the inner depth of the canvas ("World of Sense 2007-1"), but also painter's repetitive negotiations and rubbing: tightly intertwined and entangled, balancing the space with genius strokes here and there without relying on "incidence and accidence" of the Abstract Expressionism ("World of Sense 2005-1"). Sometimes these genius strokes invoke the image of tree branches ("Observe Microcosm 2006-1"), but more often they are merely proof of the presence of the artist (blue-greenish lines in the bottom left of " Observe Microcosm 2006-1"). The painter has offered luxurious sceneries here for the viewers to rest, advance, or meander, such that the viewing experience seems diachronic. The space of the canvas is a symbolic field cast off the axis of time: the now and the past reflect on each other, and the substance and the form match. Nature here evolves nebulous but orderly vitality. Painting performs the final benevolent promises she makes to humanity.
Before heading to New York in 1998 to study, Tung Hsin-ru worked more on Chinese ink and brush paintings. She graduated from Taipei University of Arts egregious cum laud with a series of Chinese paintings (1985-1990) that depicted urban architecture and run-down old streets. Her efforts on Chinese paintings are plentiful. Nonetheless, the artist turned her efforts to abstract paintings, primarily square-shaped oil paintings, after exposures to New York Abstract Expressionism. From the images of giant monuments and mountain rock formations in the very early "Shan-hai Ching" series (1992-1996), to the ingenious hand-writing-styled lines in the following "Trace of Realm" series (1995-1998) and the images of flowers in the "Image of Mind" series (1998-2002), until the recent " Observe Microcosm" series (2007-), Tung Hsin-ru went through a period of creative journey toward abstract painting, initiated by the abstract expressionism. However, It can be said that Tung Hsin-ru has established a more and more relaxed relation with the NY Abstract Expressionism. On the other hand, it is the view of the universe embraced in Chinese paintings, the concept of "Through one sand can see the world; through one leaf can reach Bodai (the wisdom of the reality-nature). ", that has slowly emerged through her paintings. It is precisely her gracious ease in alternating between different cultures, and her courage in handling confrontational languages of painting, that allows us to enjoy the subtly of varying painting languages through her paintings, grandeur and majestic, and yet at the same time minuscule and solemnly peaceful. |
