Silent Uneasiness, Far Yet Close
An Attempt at Analyzing and Understanding Lo Tsen’s Recent Solo Exhibition
by Huang Hai-Ming, 2023
Preface
It is rather difficult to discuss abstract painting in great depth if the scope of the discussion is not on formalism, and it is even more complicated to engage in automatic writing to allow the subconscious mind to take control when the subject is abstract paintings by an artist whom you’ve known for many years. Therefore, this article took extensive reading, analysis, and conversation with the artist herself to get to the core of the matter, with a space that’s open and available for further extension allotted for the possibility that there may be things that will never be fully understood. The title is the result of careful consideration and in-depth discussion, with the term yōuhuàn (憂患, a sense of uneasiness, worry, or concern) finally decided upon to point at a sense of uneasiness, and this awareness of adversity is not targeted at a singular subject but is the outcome of many crisscrossed experiences and may also include subjective imagination. Nevertheless, the main focus is ultimately still on what’s in the paintings and how they are read.
An integrated analysis is first conducted by categorizing the art series into groups, with the grouping done together with the artist, before proceeding to understand the artworks as a series. The artworks are divided into the following groups under this preliminary title: Uneasiness Series – 1, Uneasiness Series – 2, Uneasiness Series – 3, and Uneasiness Series – 4, and following the analysis is a more comprehensive reflection, with a perhaps more accurate view proposed on how the artworks complement one another or are mutually deconstructive.
Analytical Reading of the Artworks in Groups
A. Uneasiness Series – Group 1 (Artworks No. 01, No. 10)
B. Uneasiness Series – Group 2 (Artworks No. 03, No. 04, No. 05)
C. Uneasiness Series – Group 3 (Artworks No. 06, No. 07, No. 08, No. 09)
D. Uneasiness Series – Group 4 (Artworks No. 02, No. 11, No. 12)
Comprehensive Discussion and Reflection
Also observed in Lo Tsen’s art are interesting Chinese calligraphy-inspired lines and strokes, and she does have over a decade of experience with making Chinese ink paintings. However, her art is more about worrying concerns for cross-national, cross-cultural, and cross-ethnic issues, and the issues can be intertwined. These concerns were prompted because her husband was a diplomat, so Lo had lived in South Africa, the Philippines, the United States, Thailand, and India over the span of twenty years. She lived in each of those countries for four years, except India for five years. In South Africa, she was mostly in contact with white upper-class people, but in the Philippines, Thailand, and India, she was able to interact with more people of color, and in India, a serious social class inequality was noted due to the caste system. Her personal experiences and observations of the stark contrasts have naturally led to the profound and sensitive sense of uneasiness that she has for what’s happening around the world.
Lo stresses that these experiences are not her own but are profound feelings and sentiments she’s had from being caught in complex situations as she stood in the fissures between different international powers. Despite the privileged position she has in the later stage of her life, Lo did go through some difficult situations at a very young age and had to learn to deal with them, which makes her especially sensitive towards clashes of opposing forces, such as wars, ethnic conflicts, and even impending danger. She’s able to empathize more deeply than most average people.
She pays attention to conflicts that transpire in faraway places, which most people seem to overlook, and they often unconsciously become subjects of her abstract paintings. To the artist, the recent humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the devastating war in Ukraine, despite being far in distance, are negative energies that loom near. I am amazed at how she is able to use her predominately abstract paintings to convey subtle, deep, and complex feelings and worries, and her profound oeuvre explores a wide range of sentiments and concerns.
An Attempt at Analyzing and Understanding Lo Tsen’s Recent Solo Exhibition
by Huang Hai-Ming, 2023
Preface
It is rather difficult to discuss abstract painting in great depth if the scope of the discussion is not on formalism, and it is even more complicated to engage in automatic writing to allow the subconscious mind to take control when the subject is abstract paintings by an artist whom you’ve known for many years. Therefore, this article took extensive reading, analysis, and conversation with the artist herself to get to the core of the matter, with a space that’s open and available for further extension allotted for the possibility that there may be things that will never be fully understood. The title is the result of careful consideration and in-depth discussion, with the term yōuhuàn (憂患, a sense of uneasiness, worry, or concern) finally decided upon to point at a sense of uneasiness, and this awareness of adversity is not targeted at a singular subject but is the outcome of many crisscrossed experiences and may also include subjective imagination. Nevertheless, the main focus is ultimately still on what’s in the paintings and how they are read.
An integrated analysis is first conducted by categorizing the art series into groups, with the grouping done together with the artist, before proceeding to understand the artworks as a series. The artworks are divided into the following groups under this preliminary title: Uneasiness Series – 1, Uneasiness Series – 2, Uneasiness Series – 3, and Uneasiness Series – 4, and following the analysis is a more comprehensive reflection, with a perhaps more accurate view proposed on how the artworks complement one another or are mutually deconstructive.
Analytical Reading of the Artworks in Groups
A. Uneasiness Series – Group 1 (Artworks No. 01, No. 10)
- Artwork No. 01 - 思辨/Speculation: All kinds of powerful forces are rising up from the vast earth. They appear like giant trees, great big vines, or a colossal cyclone, or perhaps, it’s a riotous conflict, or maybe a swarm of pests. However, there seems to also be an energy that calms and soothes, with intense feelings of a primal world projected. The painting is mainly composed of yellowish-white, red, and blackish-purple. The above description is based on a relatively macroscopic impression of the painting. Microscopically, associations with what’s inside of a body are conjured, such as the body’s interlinking blood vessels, the lymphatic nervous system, or a particular part of the body. The common thread between the macroscopic and the microscopic views is that they both involve some sort of physical sensation, which means they can have an effect on the bodies of the viewers.
- Artwork No. 10 – 重生/Rebirth: This piece feels like an extension of “Speculation” (Artwork No. 01). The dark whirlwind mass in the previous piece has now jumped forward and is surrounded by an atmosphere of red. The entangled and conflicting black energy has progressively intensified to an overwhelming scale, while some kind of unidentified partial figure is gradually revealed. The white, on the other hand, has taken on an even softer presence and has a mediating effect.
B. Uneasiness Series – Group 2 (Artworks No. 03, No. 04, No. 05)
- Artwork No. 03 - 隱者/Hidden: Somber blues and greens are incorporated, and the red feels like a wound. Overall, the image appears chaotic, restless, and out of control. It could be a turbulent state of the world outside or a complex connection between two bodies; it could also be a complicated relationship between two different groups, and there seems to also be some startled looks captured from certain moments.
- Artwork No. 04 - 藉由/Through: The turbulent and chaotic lines in the air seem slowly converging to form two body-like forms that exude tense energy, and there seems to be some trauma and intense emotions between them. The black lines appear quite wild and even madly beautiful. The unintrusive white lines seem graceful but frail. The protruding lumps and bulges appear increasingly more apparent and feel like they will eventually take over the entire space.
- Artwork No. 05 – 溯源/Tracing the Origin: A vibrant and mysterious blue is spotted for the first time. The black lines, the patterns, and the gentle blue strokes come together, symbiotically, and instead of agitating excited energy or fervent emotions, they evoke feelings of tranquility and even melancholy. At the same time, grace and poeticness are revealed, with a controlled and sophisticated femininity conveyed.
C. Uneasiness Series – Group 3 (Artworks No. 06, No. 07, No. 08, No. 09)
- Artwork No. 06 - 伏流/Subsurface Streams: A distinctively powerful work, this painting appears like a vast piece of land that is still full of various intense primal energies, and in a way, it appears like many rogue and powerful male bodies that are intertwined. It conveys a critical juncture of a primitive and indistinguishable state of coexisting forces, where it is still impossible to differentiate between positive and negative, good and evil.
- Artwork No. 07 – 求索行/A Journey of Seeking: Like many intricately entwined roots of trees, this painting also appears like a distributary that descends rapidly from a hillside to the estuary and continues to branch off and flow away. There’s an uncontrollable force that continues to develop and branch out, and it even reaches the point where it is no longer possible to integrate into a unified whole. However, some commonalities remain present between the different parts. These delicate black fluid lines may convey a poetic quality and a sense of elegance, but there is something mysterious and unsettling about the sunken areas between the overlapping nodes.
- Artwork No. 08 – 覺察/Aware: The black lines seen previously were predominately delicate and graceful, but they are now grouped together to form powerful multi-directional flowing movements, passing through all parts of this vast earth. Some have taken on qualitative changes by first converging together and then flattening out, leading to the formation of immense negative energy before cascading off to various places, leaving behind an impact on the land. The red that flows within, which has made a prior appearance but its purpose remains uncertain, evokes associations of inflammation, bleeding, and even decay. This kind of extreme occurrence could happen on the land, among people, or to the body.
- Artwork No. 09 – 顯生/Manifestation: Various powerful energies crisscross the surface and subterranean levels of the land, and like hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, wars, or fluxes of people migrating or fleeing, they come close to altering the terrain and also observed is the land’s ability to recover from calamities, as seen with the changing of the seasons.
D. Uneasiness Series – Group 4 (Artworks No. 02, No. 11, No. 12)
- Artwork No. 02 - 寓意/Allegory: Soft pinky beige-colored shapeshifting forms are growing out of the gray earth; supposedly a group of some sort, they appear to be growing or escaping out from the inside. Suspicious-looking dark red lines are discharged organically from the inside, as they continue to spread and disperse. The dark red organic substance or some sort of a base seems to have stemmed from a greater source. Are they going to spread till they become ubiquitous? We have seen this imagery in group three of the series. What exactly is it? Perhaps, it is something that will become rampant but is not immediately harmful.
- Artwork No. 11 – 復返/Reversion: Soft and morphing bodies that have been growing and extending out of the gray earth have gradually become an overwhelming shapeshifting monster. The preexisting strokes of different energies are now completely swallowed up by this seemingly unified collective living entity. This, perhaps, marks the beginning of a catastrophe.
- Artwork No. 12 – 伏流界/Subsurface Boundary: Living beings of different external shapes and traits are now trapped in the same structure. Despite the various struggles and conflicts between the different forces within, they are now ensnared inside a smooth and enormous but suspicious organ, and the painting appears like a black-and-white endoscopic image. However, only the inside of the first layer is visible; the internal conduit vessels with signs of struggle will never be seen.
Comprehensive Discussion and Reflection
Also observed in Lo Tsen’s art are interesting Chinese calligraphy-inspired lines and strokes, and she does have over a decade of experience with making Chinese ink paintings. However, her art is more about worrying concerns for cross-national, cross-cultural, and cross-ethnic issues, and the issues can be intertwined. These concerns were prompted because her husband was a diplomat, so Lo had lived in South Africa, the Philippines, the United States, Thailand, and India over the span of twenty years. She lived in each of those countries for four years, except India for five years. In South Africa, she was mostly in contact with white upper-class people, but in the Philippines, Thailand, and India, she was able to interact with more people of color, and in India, a serious social class inequality was noted due to the caste system. Her personal experiences and observations of the stark contrasts have naturally led to the profound and sensitive sense of uneasiness that she has for what’s happening around the world.
Lo stresses that these experiences are not her own but are profound feelings and sentiments she’s had from being caught in complex situations as she stood in the fissures between different international powers. Despite the privileged position she has in the later stage of her life, Lo did go through some difficult situations at a very young age and had to learn to deal with them, which makes her especially sensitive towards clashes of opposing forces, such as wars, ethnic conflicts, and even impending danger. She’s able to empathize more deeply than most average people.
She pays attention to conflicts that transpire in faraway places, which most people seem to overlook, and they often unconsciously become subjects of her abstract paintings. To the artist, the recent humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the devastating war in Ukraine, despite being far in distance, are negative energies that loom near. I am amazed at how she is able to use her predominately abstract paintings to convey subtle, deep, and complex feelings and worries, and her profound oeuvre explores a wide range of sentiments and concerns.