Moments Between Awake and Asleep

    The puzzle of Chin Meng-Hsuan’s painting resides first of all in what she once told me: “I begin by working on a scene, a portrait or an object, until a certain stage. Movements and gestures then take over; erasing and overlapping become inevitable. In the end the whole picture transforms in an unforeseen way.” That is, what has once appeared but retreated from the surface does not manifest visually as part of the outcome. Herein there is an unsolved question: Why this denial of visibility?

  Looking at her work in progress one finds difficult to resist associating it with the mechanism of dream and memory. It was said that the very awakening moment is also a moment when the dreamer is dismissed from the sensuous imagery. Therefore every effort to recall one’s dream culminates in a radical reconstruction of the images. The same principle applies to reminiscence. Only in the wake of the denial can the images become figurable through the impossible but stimulating means of recollection. For sure dream and memory serve commonly as narrative device in the painting. Nevertheless, it will be rewarding to observe how the painting explores the process of figuration itself.

  The space on the canvas proves to be ideal for such exploration. The constantly deferred finding provides no less pleasure than the totality of narration subjected to a single glance. The tension between failing to grasp and understanding everything is largely due to the material existence of the painting. Brush, stroke, spot, scratch cannot proceed without the material adding up. This simple fact in physics affects what we know, perhaps too confidently, as pictorial representation. Here people, interiors, landscapes might be recognizable in some pictures, while their details collapse. In any case the substance remains there, inviting the eyes to drift across the canvas. Dispersion at work pushes the boundary of representation.

  The dispersion of figures and surroundings. The dispersion of spatial and temporal markers.

  Accordingly, the distinction of one thing from another is only a matter of degree in the painting. The apparent lack of depth functions as beacon to multiplied traces, and brings to life all tangible elements for the reorientation of a view. This would require an idea of painting that the painted space can extend both laterally and through its thickness. Trying to make sense of the interdependence between layers, Chin Meng Hsuan seems willing to accept the uncertainty brought up either by a fleeting glimpse or a contemplative gaze. Her experiment asserts its vibrance when working towards the abstraction of this very experience. In the process, the presence of the painting gives rise to dispersion, a possible approach to recollection — a more material one.


Yen. W. -Y.