text by Ava Pao-shia Hsueh
“Gazing upon a map is like reconciling cognition and reality.”
I prefer to start from the unknown during the process of artistic creation. But bridging the distance between the known and unknown in the creative process is akin to finding oneself in a mental space spun out of the complex relationships of thought and feeling. It is rather like gazing upon a map and constantly reconciling cognition and reality. However, this process gives me a fluidity of thought, which in turn gives rise to the momentum that is essential to making art.
Abstract art has a theoretical basis in its historical development, as well as a unique creative vocabulary accumulated via the shifts that occur due to changes between generations. I believe that historically constructed systems of cognition must be compared and contrasted with the situations and values of reality. Only then can these systems be expanded, to lead to the synthesis of original ideas. Hence, abstract art is not detached from contemporary linguistic systems; on the contrary, it permits a deeper exploration into the foundations of entities, as well as immerses itself in the search for answers to the questions it poses, guiding a dual manifestation of the subjective and objective. That is why my work is concerned with how abstract art could move beyond its past claims of “non-representational” art, because the art inevitably “represents” its own history within the cognitive system. Through the complex interlocking of diverse information, art becomes a carrier for continuous meaning.
Approximately 35 of my works will be shown in Inart Space in Taiwan, as a retrospective of my career from 1989 to 2014. The retrospective covers my periods of collision, emancipation, and restructuring, which span New York and Taiwan. This exhibition is a showcase for the dialectic aesthetic process of abstract art. Each period has a different theme, with each theme highlighting a theory for exploration. These works represent the shifts and positions I have taken in my thinking and aesthetics regarding contemporary abstract art over the years. They also represent a pure, unsullied utopia in my soul. Over the course of the creative process, interlace thoughts come into existence at the moment the gaze is fixed. As they give rise to bodily form, a series of mind maps emerge.
As a whole, these works showcase marks that cannot be erased, and the critical points of the mind. They represent a need that rises from within, as well as the shifts in thinking and the breakthroughs in creative exploration. As a creator of abstract art, artistic creation is the single most important choice for me, as well as a window into my mind.
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Mind Maps: 1989–2014 Abstract Art of Ava Hsueh
Statement
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