text by Hsiao Chong-Ray
To most people, the works of Ava Hsueh are difficult to understand. However, when her works are experienced from the Taitung perspective, they feel particularly close.
Located opposite western Taiwan, Taitung is situated at the boundary between the largest continental landmass of Eurasia and the plate of the largest ocean, the Pacific Ocean Plate. Being located at the edge of this boundary, Taitung is an area with high kinetic movement resulting from plate activity.
Analogously, the works of Ava Hsueh lie at another boundary, that between abstract and narrative styles, with images that are always full of powerful kinetic energy and strength.
At first glance the early works of Ava Hsueh, though represented in the form of “abstraction,” actually contain implied symbolic images, even columns of writing that convey certain meanings. This is a reflection on the Western idea of abstract art and is also an attempt at thinking of new directions; it is an attempt at breaking the old conventions of using simplified images or starting work from existing structures or from artistic conceptions. Ava has attempted to incorporate the significance of “events” into the abstract forms of her works; these events may be inspired by her personal exploration of life or reflections on greater social events. Therefore, the structure and development of the images are entangled with the flow and penetration of Ava’s inner layers of sub-consciousness and consciousness, lingering between and extending beyond the “graspable” and “ungraspable,” sometimes even directly incorporating highly metaphorical objects into the images. As in Ava’s self–description:
“My paintings are densely constructed abstract and biomorphic structure which intimate the basic tendencies of spirituality. The paintings are filled with heavy textural surface and complex compositions, and I direct my works towards states of chaotic disorder through symbolism and interwoven spaces. Some of my works include one or multiple types of three-dimensional sculptures, or everyday objects like fishing lure or fishing nets. Most of these objects aspire to be narrative, symbolic, metaphorical, or mysterious, and exist inter-relatedly with the visual cultures of two-dimensional paintings, thereby they mutually guide each other towards various types of significance and messages. Here, with these objects, abstraction breaks away from the confines of reality, and the objects simultaneously return to their own existential qualities, interacting and combining with the outside world in order to evoke the curiosity and imagination of both visible and invisible objects in the surroundings.”
Continuing from the basic task of “Finding the Way for Abstract Art,” the post–2000 works of Ava Hsueh entered a different direction of exploration. The woodblock printing techniques that Ava had previously learned came into good use in her new series. Some symbols used in the images still retain their “polysemous” roles, symbolizing or suggesting more than one meaning or reference. To a certain extent, some of these references have caused audiences to reflect on their past experiences. However, compared to her previous works, both the explorations of her inner world and the link to social events have evidently lessened, or rather, become more implicit. Because of this new direction, Ava has named this series of works as “Flowing Codes,” where “Flowing” represents the non–rigidity of the work’s meaning and its highly polysemous and diverse nature. According to the artist, “The polysemous and diverse symbols are the result of intertextuality. When the meanings of different visual elements interact, they simultaneously connect with cultural experiences in time and space. Therefore, we do not need to force ourselves to resume using the fixed methods of appreciating abstract art that were in effect in the early 20th century in order to be acquainted with current abstract artwork; on the contrary, we can experience, perceive, and read these works by trying to connect our present with the cornerstone of practical realization towards our equivalent era and the unleashing of our creative association.”
The fishing nets and lures that symbolize traps and death no longer appear in the works; they are replaced by intertexual images, including both the intertextuality of frames and symbols themselves. Ava deals mainly with split images in this series of works, allowing cold abstractions of the intellectual and logical to coexist simultaneously with hot abstractions that are full of strength and lines, thus creating mutually–influential visual and psychological effects. Besides using ordinary canvases, Ava even uses solid woodblocks with geometrical arrangement effects, thereby breaking through the boundaries separating painting, sculpture, and art installation.
But this period did not last long. In June 2009, near the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Ava faced death and was fortunate enough survive. After this fortuitous change in events, she entered into her third stage of personal composition. The exhibition of her recent works in 2013 is the continuation of this stage.
After her close encounter with death, Ava’s new works reemerged with a refreshing joy akin to a spring after a long drought, while also presenting the explosive energy of rebirth. With the freedom and complex layering of painting, Ava pushes her body to its limits on these large vertical frames by naturally employing the various techniques she had previously learned, including calligraphy, woodblock printing, and even sculpture, and thereby forming a type of pressing, interwoven, overlapping, and expansive energy. She at times evokes the carefree feeling of galloping on the prairie, and at other times the tight feeling of an entangled network; at times she intimates the swaying of bamboo in the wind, and at other times the wriggling of ancient crusts or the throbbing surges of lava....
In these huge, kinetic images, the artist uses a rational method to free hand-draw nine flat smeared dots in many colors and sizes, forming a great homology and pulling between the image and background, just like how the earth is shrouded and guided along by nine suns in the ancient myth “The Nine Suns.” Through the juxtaposition of cold and hot abstract symbols, the artist initiates a clash between the cognition of reality and the historical imagination, thereby building a kinetic energy field where rational dialectic and emotional perception interact.
Just like the movement of the Earth’s plates a million years ago—first the Eurasian Plate and the Pacific Ocean Plate, followed by the intervention of the Philippine Sea Plate—Taitung, situated at the Taiwanese boundary where the mountains and the ocean meet, the place known as Houshan (behind the mountains), is not only a scene with high kinetic energy, but also a flowing field, a outside of realm; isn’t this precisely reflected in the names of works exhibited in the 2013 Solo Exhibition of Ava Hsueh?
Therefore, we may conclude that: It may not be easy to comprehend Ava’s works, but appreciating her work from Taitung seems to be the most interesting and appropriate choice!
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