Beneath a descending moon, breathing:

the paintings of Su Xiaobai

Artists︱ Su Xiaobai

Curator︱ HSU Fong-Ray

Exhibition dates︱ 2019.12.07 - 2020.01.22

Venue︱ Tina Keng Gallery

Organized by︱ Tina Keng Gallery

https://www.tinakenggallery.com/en/exhibitions/203-beneath-a-descending-moon-breathing-the-paintings-of-su-xiaobai/

Curatorial Statement

“Leave the story to those who desire it, I just need a hint of light.” Su Xiaobai

We read Su Xiaobai’s stories, admire Su Xiaobai’s paintings and scrutinise Su Xiaobai’s lacquer, all of which have been featured extensively in the media. Yet to Su, a single remark serves to conclude these overflowing narratives: “Leave the story to those who desire it, I just need a hint of light.” The exhibition Beneath a Descending Moon, Breathing: The Painting of Su Xiaobai has no intention to extend the story, nor to give it a title. It is, simply, the curator’s response to the artist’s creation.

522 Appearance

At the entrance to his studio, we put two chairs together and tried to get to know each other, as if we were online friends meeting for the very first time. Su wondered, “How is it that I don’t remember much about you, given how long you’ve worked at the gallery. I’ve heard others mention you of course, but this is the first time we’ve actually worked on an exhibition together.” Just as when most artists and curators discuss works together, our ideas ignited and collided and hung there suspended in the dense air. We talked and lost all sense of time, until the natural light faded and dusk blanketed the studio. The growing darkness obscured his face so that he was only a dim silhouette. But it was then that I could finally see the true artist.

523 Light well

The artist prefers not to have the lights on in his studio, and works only when there is abundant sunlight. There is an electrically controlled curtain installed in the ceiling of his studio, and as it drew open, rays of sunlight spilled onto the ground illuminating his works, highlighting their shapes and the traces on their surface. The artist was searching for a particular painting among paintings that seemed to both look alike and unlike each other. There it was, on this afternoon when the studio moved in and out of brilliance, lighted by a fickle sun that sometimes flung its broad beams through the light well and then sometimes dimmed, throwing the studio into shadow; following the day as it slowly descended into darkness. That was the painting.

524 Traces

The studio is the primary field of discovery of an artist’s production. I am a ghost drifting across the space, picking up the traces of all that has happened here. Pieces of wire mesh, a wooden carpenter’s square, a two-foot-long handmade measuring compass, roller chains and metal pieces. These physical objects mottled in paint must somehow be associated with the marks on the paintings. A canvas coated last night with pastel lacquer is now half dry; I remember it as a thick layer of colour, but now the canvas is suffused with a light shade of blue, the ground coat that was painted on before the lacquer was applied. The tracks of the painting are concealed by time; and the light of the painting is concealed within its marks. It’s a hiding place. It’s a place of discovery.

525 Jade and Stones

On this scorching afternoon, we are holding garden hoses and watering the bamboo garden in the backyard. The small stones scattered on various worktables in the studio are rain flower pebbles that originally came from this bamboo garden. This made me think of the books about Hemudu culture, jade, pottery, stele and ikonen piled in front of the studio desk. Staring at the rain flower pebbles cupped in my hand, I had an epiphany about the indescribable emotions that are expressed in his works. The inexplicable was revealed, right in front of my eyes, plain and simple.

526 Embryo

The plastic extruded board, before being covered in ash and lacquer, is the starting point of his works and, after this visit, the beginning of the exhibition. Make it the key visual then. The handmade invitation cards echo the way the artist creates colours layer by layer; they seem linked in spirit to his paintings, in the thickness of their layers, the traces left behind during production and the way each of them is almost identical but distinctive. One is the artist’s work; the other is the exhibition’s.