Renewed
Mark Chen
Shiao-Nan Chen, Chinese watercolor
Renewed is an unlikely integration of two media: photography and Chinese painting. It is also a union of two contrasting subject matters: electrical power generation and classical Chinese landscapes. The two collaborating artists are a mother-son pair: Shiao-Nan Chen and myself, Mark Chen.
My earliest artistic influence came from my mother, when she held me in one arm and painted with the other. For the most part of my life, this influence seems to have been dormant at best, when it was not rebelled against. My modern view on arts which emphasizes experiments and originality have conflicted with Chinese paintings’ spiritual and traditional foundation.
Our personal, an “east meets west” journey is also played out by a much larger entity, China, when it makes a transition into prosperity. The economic boom led to much higher power consumption. To provide electricity to the vast 1.35 billion population with fossil fuel, the emission has rendered the air unbreathable. In a desperate attempt to remove Beijing’s persisting, impenetrable smog, China has built wind farms in Inner Mongolia at such a tremendous pace, in four years its total capacity has rivaled Texas’, United States’ capital of wind power.
These journeys will now cross their paths, as Shiao-Nan Chen and I address China’s environmental predicament in a collaboration of our media. In the execution, Shiao-Nan Chen takes on experiment and I embrace tradition: we are venturing out of our separate comfort zones and into each other’s practices.
The pieces of Renewed are based on Chinese watercolor papers. Jing Ho paper for landscapes, for its ability to carry lots of water therefore facilitating the spreading and pushing of ink and colors; and Shuan paper for flora and fauna, for its ability to hold inks and color on spot, retaining details. On these papers, I print images of energy related subjects that are digitally manipulated for tonal range and composition that are compatible or challenging to Chinese watercolor.
The printed papers are then passed on to my mother who will be painting, over and around the photographic image, traditional Chinese painting subject matters such as landscapes, human figure and floras and faunas.
