It’s the Ice is the special extension of “Endless Peaks”, which is consisted of three different parts. Including the 5-channel colour, b&w and silent video present monk’s daily life, working and resting on the Mt. Tiantai. The triptych work, Endless Peaks – It’s the Wind, is made of photography, acrylic and drawing on wood panel. Along with the “icy floor” which is installed with the stainless steel mirror that completes the overall concept.
Last year, in my solo exhibition “Endless Peaks,” I unfolded the entire presentation as a “painted film,” in which the video, photography, and painting, including the black mirror and the cavernous hole towards the second floor, are fragmented clips of a film that integrate into the entire exhibition space. The concept of “painted film” is similar to the format of ancient Chinese handscroll painting, which unfolds from left to right, with a narrative structure connected as a montage. Now I’m working on the publication of Endless Peaks, which is again is akin to a literary or textural film that does not engage writing but adopts authentic images of landscape, paintings, frames from moving images to stimulate the reader’s imagination. If you have seen the exhibition, this viewing and reading experience will constitute a different version of this film. Rather than conceiving it as a classic ninety-minute film, it’s an expanded concept. It is both different from and related to my previous “library film” and “tomorrow’s audience” style “museum film.”
In short, it is a film concept that tries to break away from the general narrative film and emphasizes its film format. This attempt marks an essential idea in our oriental art. For instance, the ambiguity in Chinese culture is often unspeakable but understood through one’s impression, and its subtlety affords room for imagination and spiritual depth. My practice has been approaching “insightful understanding,” which often comes from the viewer’s understanding. And the so-called “imaginative film” expands from one’s imagination, invisible and yet to happen, where the viewer can watch the work in parts. From which, one would come up with visions and atmospheres from this hidden and complete concept.
I have a background in oil painting, but today it is impossible for my paintings to return to the previous perception and expression. I may have pursued techniques in the past, but now when I paint to express my ideas and concepts, where I ask myself whether I would reach and express them through painting? In the past, I relied on film to achieve “insightful understanding,” but now I wonder if the same is possible through painting. I juxtapose different media, figure drawings, acrylic paintings, and photography to forming a “triptych,” like a montage of images, which embodies a conscious attempt to undo the boundaries and create a new narrative relationship and structure.
