Ink Journeys by Teo Han Wue
By Teo Han Wue
As a newcomer seeking to unravel the elusive, layered nuances of the art of ink on rice paper, Kiat Sing has found her search richly rewarding.
Though the results of her experimentation echo, sometimes with striking resemblance, works by more established artists, she is nonetheless intrigued and fascinated by the similar outcome or conclusion, which she had not intended or expected in her own, when she first started.
Kiat Sing is particularly excited and even encouraged when told that her Moodscape Drawings depicting the void and separateness between Heaven and Earth recalls the abstract landscapes of Singapore artist Choong Chee Pang and the Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian, and the more representational ones by Jia Youfu from China. On the suggestion of the Zen-like meditative quality of the broad sweeps and bold splashes of her brushstrokes as in the Shouting pieces, she modestly denies any spiritual and religious practice. She confesses though to inspiration from the concept of qian/kun, the universe, from the Taoist cosmology in the Chinese classic Yijing (The book of change), as a recurring theme especially in her Moodscape Drawings Series 3 & 4. She incorporates this in her work, “to reflect the mood evoke by everyday things around me”.
In these contemplations which she generously shares with the viewer of the exhibition, we see Kiat Sing going on an exploration without thinking too much where it might take her. For her the adventure has turned out to be a stimulating experience, from which she must have learnt a great deal more about ink painting that she would have if she set out in search of particular effects with her brush after the styles of earlier seekers.
I am sure Kiat Sing will in time tell us further tales from her ink journeys, which she will no doubt continue with great enthusiasm.
Ink Journeys Continued by Teo Han Wue
By Teo Han Wue
The rich nuances of ink brushstrokes on rice paper never cease to fascinate and indeed challenge artists who have chosen the medium for contemporary expression. Despite its close association with standard painters’ practice in the classical tradition, the medium remains popular, though not without controversy, among artists including those who may be regarded as “avant-garde” drawing from it almost like an inexhaustible source. Its appeal lies not only in its technique and effects, but in the way ink, together with the brush and rice paper, is so quintessential to the Chinese visual as well as literary culture.
It is therefore hardly surprising that Kiat Sing continues her “ink journeys” she boldly began in Moodscape Drawings last year with further explorations of what she calls “separation and gathering that leads to the spreading and accumulating effects of the ink”. In this new collection entitled Shift, the earlier image of the moon’s circular form remains dominant as a symbol of fullness and hope, with the mood evidently brightened by more than a few dashes of colour than before.
Focusing on the theme of ju (gathering) complementing san (separation/dispersion), Kiat Sing contemplates the binary reality of nature and human experience through brushstrokes in juxtapositions that suggest either harmony or tension in constant flux.
The theme is reaffirmed in most other pieces particularly those in the Shift and Waiting series, which represent the artist’s new venture into the stringent schema of hanging scrolls in a couplet format. Kiat Sing has studiously worked within the confines of the narrow vertical paper arranging forms of varying ink intensities and the blank spaces in between paralleling the metre and poetic rhythms of a textual couplet written according to formal calligraphic display.
We are grateful for Kiat Sing’s enthusiasm to share with the viewer her thoughts and reflections from her explorations in this old but exciting medium as she moves further along in her journeys.
Traditional Gulfs by Tan Boon Hui
By Tan Boon Hui
As a young painter, Quek Kiat Sing puts a heavy burden on herself in choosing to practice in the Chinese ink medium. This ambivalence and subsequent attempts to evade it is expressed explicitly in her first exhibition where she took pains to state that her works were not meant to be seen through the framework of traditional Chinese ink paintings but were simple expressions of her innermost emotions. Tellingly that first exhibition was called Moodscape Drawings. One strategy of evasion employed has been to assert the possibility of adopting only the techniques while asserting that the ideals expressed are western. Hence she states that her works can be seen as ‘employing the medium of traditional ink to realize western concepts…’.
That this second show bears the title Shift is significant for its illumination of her initial engagement with the complex links that her practice puts her in relation to the whole canon of Chinese ink techniques, themes and ideals. In this sense, the key works are the series of ‘twinned’ works in the Shift and Waiting Series. Whereas earlier works like the Shouting series seemed attempts to skirt or avoid any explicit connections with conventional modes of Chinese ink composition, the Shift and Waiting series are clear engagements with the tradition. Her sketches prior to the actual painting of these works show that they were composed as one larger work split into two halves. Interestingly enough, the artist had toyed with the idea of displaying them as hanging scrolls in the format of couplets. The couplet format distinctive for its extremely public nature. It is meant to be seen, debated and admired by others. Whatever their final format, the process of creating these works in the artist’s mind marks an important step in her engagement with the burden of tradition.
Of course the 3000 year tradition of ink painting is the sum of more than form. Her rising confidence in her abilities is concomitant with a more explicit expression of her readings in Daoist philosophy. In works like Shift and Waiting, technique is associated with particular Daoist ideals. In her practice, continuous strokes are used to symbolise heaven and the yang, while the broken stroke are expressions of earth (the yin). The tension between these two ideals and her hope for their reconciliation, in essence, their ‘encountering’ drive all the works in this exhibition. That she is also uncertain of the final outcome can be seen in the yawning white spaces that separate her bodies of swirling ink. In Knotty Heaven, the encounter between opposites threatens. The dense circular strokes of the cloud formations above strain to crash down upon the thin, insubstantial earth below, the latter depicted with weaker ink washes.
Another significant change is marked by the move to figurative works, namely the Lotus series. In this stage of her career, Kiat Sing has begun to appropriate creatively, conventional subject matter, namely the lotus form, to articulate her own individual concerns. She writes ‘… it is employed as a sign of oblivion. As the leaves sway in the wind, they are ignorant of unforeseeable change. It reflects the uncertainty of tomorrows but for the present, they dance with the wind.’ To dance with wind perhaps best describes Kiat Sing’s current artistic development, no more are the evasions and tentative skirtings around the gulfs that separate her from her predecessors in the medium. Comparing a work like Lotus 2 with Knotty Heaven or Prayer to the Moon, one sees the joy of the present. In Lotus 2, the vision of the world has reversed, the heavens are no longer portrayed with thick, heavy strokes, instead blended ink washes dominate, while the outlines of the large lotus below are broken with dry strokes. Gone are the yawning impenetrable white gulfs that separate her ink bodies in earlier works, in their place are openings and channels that invite. This marks another step in the artistic journey of the artist.
墨写率真
By 蔡逸溪
捷忻最近将水墨媒介作为艺术创作的选择诚然是一项挑战。然而，这标题为“情境绘制”的近作，是一部记录感情的转变和可变性的日志。从中却可观擦到选择乃是捷忻艺术本性的自发所赋予的一项自然趋势的发展。这些展出的作品，水墨淋漓，显出画者对艺术的挚诚，不只在探索一个深藏于内心的世界，也触及了周遭的现实环境，这些都是有关捷忻于编织一个已有了承诺的世界的写照。
捷忻运用水墨写意技法，似乎对有关传统略少阐意，代之则是以水墨效果作为主导，着重行笔及墨韵的纯抽象表现，并借以阐述情绪意境的抽象景观，表达了画者的思维和潜意识的反映。
从捷忻绘画学术背景，不难了解其艺术创作不仅以“道”作为哲学基础，而有偏向时下贯彻东西方句后现代现象的当代艺术思潮为主。无论如何，美术的评批，仍然不离对真、善、美的极致要求。除了遵守对自然与社会发展的规律，并要求对人性自由和美感的探索。达致功力和内涵的升华，从而建立个人独特的艺术风格。
首个画展常被画家重视，相信捷忻将不止仅仅珍惜展出带来的成果。更重要的是将之视为一个新的起点，开始另一个新的旅程。
水无痕
By 陈文辉 (新加坡美术馆馆长)（李明明译）
作为一名年轻的画家，郭捷忻选择用中国水墨这个媒介创作，往自己身上千上压斤。这样的矛盾与犹豫，以致随之而来尝试回避的心理，在她首次个展的作品中便已显露无遗。她解释说，自己的创作仅仅只是反映个人心灵深处的情感，而非单纯叫人欣赏传统中国水墨画的意境。这也就是首个画展命名“情境绘制”之由来了。她所尝试使用的一种解说是：强调采用中国水墨画技巧，但却用西方的表达方法来呈现其作画概念。因此，她说作品可以看为是“运用传统水墨画媒介来表现西方式的概念。。。。。。”。
这回以“移动”为名的第二次画展是深具意义的。因为这是她对自己从一开始便与中国水墨画的技巧、主题与概念有所联系的一种阐明。在这样的理解下，这个画展中的主题作品要算是《移动》与《等待》系列了。尽管其较前期的《呐喊》系列似乎有尝试回避任何同这中国传统水墨画技巧相关的意图，眼前的《移动》与《等待》系列就是实实在在、清清楚楚的表明画家同水墨之联系了。在下笔作画前的素描中，显示出作品是以大幅画创作后才一分为二的。有趣的是，画家考虑以卷轴对联的形式展示。而对联则有公开展示，让人观赏、默想思考与赞美钦羡的特色。不管最终的呈现形式是什么，在画家整个创作的过程中，每一步每一阶段都记录了她在情感、意识与思想上同这个传统媒介割舍不开的情意结。
当然，中国水墨画三千年历史的精彩，绝对不只在形式上而已。在捷忻的创作中，她因为能够更清楚的表现道家哲学的精深，而对自己作画的能力信心倍增。在《移动》与《等待》系列中，作画技巧是同道家的哲学思想相关的。在她的作品里，连续不断的一笔一划用来表现乾或阳，而断断续续的笔触则用以表现坤或阴。本质上，这两种概念/想法间的张力，以及她对两者和谐的期待，都可以在这次画展中的作品中感觉到。她也不确定作品最后出现的效果能否在与飞舞的墨彩相间的大块大块留白里得以心领神会。在《烦空》里，预示了正反的冲突。象征天上云彩的浓而密圆状笔触，拼命的推挤着底下那以淡弱笔触表现的脆弱地球。
她的另一个重要转变是趋于形象化的创作，如《有荷》系列便是。在此阶段，捷忻开始晓得适度而有创意的利用这传统的题材来清楚地说明自己所关心的课题。她写道：“。。。。。这是无知的象征。当荷叶在风里摇摆，它们对无法测度的改变根本不能了解。这反映了未来的不确定，但当前，它们可以随风起舞。”随风起舞，也许是形容洁星目前的艺术进展之最适当不过的词，这当中再也没有任何回避或不确定的情感拿捏困扰，使她有别于水墨画界的前辈。就拿《有荷～二》和《烦空》或《祈月》相比较，观赏者可以领会到那种当下的欢愉和喜悦。在《有荷～二》里，画家对世界的想象全然改变，天空不再以厚重的笔触来表现，而是以淡彩水墨作为象征，至于大朵大朵荷叶的轮廓，用的是断断续续的笔触。过去常用难以渗透的大块留白手法已不复存在，取而代之的是许多敞开的线条空间。这同样也标志着画家在艺术道路上的成长足迹。
再续水墨之旅
By 张夏帏(好藏之美术馆馆长)
中国水墨画里姿彩丰富的笔墨向来吸引、同时也挑战了选择它作为当代表达形式的画家。虽然一般上比较接近古代绘画传统，它仍然是画家，包括那些被称为“前卫”的画家们，爱采取的形式，并视若取之不竭的泉源，尽管它作为现代画表达形式还偶尔引发争议。水墨的魅力不仅在于其中之技巧与效果，而在于其笔、墨、纸的结合，已成为中国视觉以及文学艺术传统精髓之一部分。
捷忻在她去年大胆踏上的“水墨之旅”路上坚持勇往前进，探索她所谓“根据分合概念而营造水墨聚散的效果”，实在也是意料中的事。这组题为《移动》的新作品里，依然频频出现先前象征圆满、希望的圆形意象，但如今感觉却因增添了些许色彩而比以往轻快、明亮。
通过“聚”、“散”互动及相辅相成的主题，捷忻藉笔墨对比体现出恒变中的张力与和谐，对大自然中与人世间存在着的二元性现实进行思考。
在她许多其它作品都明显地反映这个主题，尤其是《移动》与《期待》系列意味着画者对于严谨的条幅的对联形式，进行一次新的尝试。捷忻很勤勉、细致地将自己限制于竖直、窄长条幅的格局内，经营出笔墨有不同力度的线条和图象，似乎要通过书法笔墨，呼应着传统对联里所表现出诗歌和文辞的韵律与节奏。
我们很高兴捷忻继续“水墨之旅”的同时，热情地向观众朋友汇报她以这古老、但多姿多彩的媒介孜孜不倦地创作、探索过程中，所启发的思考和心得。
