3 HD-videos, no sound, 34″14′, AT, 2010-12
Asian ink drawing and painting in gerenal – specifically the styles of the Muromachi-period (especially Sesshū Tōyō), the Japanese Rimpa-school (like Sakai Hōitsu, Ogata Kōrin) as well as Chinese painting (Mi Youren (Southern School), Zha Shibiao (Xin’an School) and Gao Fenghan (Yang Zhou School) notedly) – have been subsumed and concentrated in their aesthetics, form and content and have then been transcribed, transferred into the 21st century by setting them in motion.
Loosely basing on the typical degree of abstraction, the subtle indication of content and characteristic art of image sectioning/cut out, these three videos actuate basic principles of ‘asian painting’ into actual movement, transfering the Asian art form into the 21st century. Filmed in Austria the work merges and challenges aesthetics of East and West.
A mountain slowly emerges from the mist then unhastily disappears again. Absence and abstraction gradually transform into a distinguishable image, into ‘presence’, into shape and form before barely perceivable vanishing into abstraction and ‘absence’.
The real time speed is the key to a transformation which stays unnoticed for the first minutes. The three circles – like ‘peepholes’ – seem like still photographs, motionless. Only after a while, when consciously engaging with the slowness and tranquility, the active observer will begin to notice the subtle changes in the scene.
Screening
Palmenhaus Kultur, Vienna, 2013
Video extract, 12’33”