Diving in the Combo Zone of Stones and Water

Written by Lu Xiao-Yu, Ph.D. at the University of Paris 8
Translated by RYE LIN ART & TRANSLATION

Graduated from National Taiwan College of Arts (now National Taiwan University of Arts), Hung Te-Chung majored in mixed media and installation art, but he was actually good at realistic style of paintings – his work nominated by the National Art Exhibition, the Symphony of Time, was an evident proof. However, how do we define Hung Te-Chung’s current art style? Is it abstract or semi-abstract? Is it more like Chinese ink art or Western drip painting? This might be our answer:

“…to many artists, the distinction between representational and abstract art” is meaningless because their works have them face a truth everyday: Based on specific essential insight, all art is abstract; meanwhile, all art is representational because it is always representing something – despite just an intention.1

Hung Te-Chung seemed to be quite productive in 2017. From the Origin of Me, Movement, to Transparency and Reflection, he used different subjects to present the same ideology. In the Origin of Me, he said, “The stones are me.” In the face of the Movement series, he said, “The flowers are me.” Now, what exactly does art mean to him? Why is he stones but also flowers?

The thing is, when it comes to the forms of painting, categories are not important for Hung Te-Chung. Self-exploration and observation, instead, are more important. In other words, he uses painting to explore his inner self and reflect on his role in real life. In the Origin of Me series, the stones accommodate multiple spaces within themselves rather than appearing to be just stones. Hence, what he has achieved is more like the construction of the internal structure of a stone instead of a mere portrait of a stone’s appearance. His stones hold other elements within so they appear like dungeons. “Minerals are the most fundamental elements in the universe. Stones, formed by the crystallised minerals, are the symbols of the aggregation and mixture of one’s identities.” The crystallised minerals are like the eggs of the stones. They are the origin, and they all bear different modes of existence. The first piece of the Origin of Me is characterised by irregular blurry dots, hyphae-like complicated lines crossing over one another, and layers of spaces coloured and formed by brown, black and white. The pine green covering the brink of stones remind us of the surface of rusty bronze of ancient times. We can thus differentiate the internal and the fanciful external space of the stones. Hung also contrasts the stones with the monochrome grey and white background to “make the stones, which occupy most part of the canvas, appear to be more lonely and giant.” These stones do not seem like stones – they are round, glossy, and not sharp at all, just like how people turn gentle and sophisticated thanks to their life experiences.

In the Origin of Me series, I used abstract tonality and shapes to symbolise scuffs carved by strong flow of water. In our lives, our careers, families, romance, and marriage are all challenges. Once we get rid of sharpness, we transform ourselves into various kinds of rounded circles. The Origin of Me actually suggests “the ego of me” – even though it’s still solid and tough at the inside, its form is refined and turns to be gentle at the outside.

In Movement, another series created in the same year, Hung presents a dialectical relationship of stillness in motion and motion in stillness. How to portray the flowing water as well as the stones sunk in water challenged Hung’s painting skills. Pouring water and pigments on his watercolour paper, Hung allows the two mediums to diffuse, merge, and expand so as to depict the flow of water. And then, he uses stones as the painting brushes to sweep pigments around, and from time to time he also portrays the details with his real brushes. While some pieces in this series are oil paintings, most of them are watercolour. Using water as its solvent, watercolour thus best demonstrates the vibrant reflection and changes of light in water and the dimming, foggy scenes with serenity. The Movement series seems to be an extension of the Origin of Me. The Movement series presents the relation between the author and the external world as Hung portrays water as torrents and stones as himself. While water flow symbolises “motion and challenges” in the environment, stones suggest “stillness and calmness”. Yet, stillness and motion interact and receive each other. But, under severe circumstances like in torrents, stones would be rounded and flattened however hard and sharp they used to be, which also suggests that “even though one’s ego is diminished and eradicated in the environment, an essential and gentle version of oneself stays around.” We can tell how Hung manages to examine his own life experience through the creation of art. Art is the testimony of real life struggles. One’s ego is shaped through the struggles in reality. According to Max Beckmann, a German painter, all the important matters in the world of art are inspired by the deepest feelings toward the mystery of life. Self-realisation is the drive for everyone who is with goals. This was the ego that he was after in art and in life.2 Isn’t Hung Te-Chung seeking such kind of ego? He sees himself in the vibrant world – be it his finding of the inner spaces layered up in a stone, or the life struggles revealed by a stone which stands against torrents, or his own character of purity in the widely-seen-but-still-lovely flowers. Isn't his observation based on “the deepest feelings toward the mystery of life”? And then, the Transparency and Reflection series created in 2017-18 further demonstrates the outstanding excellence of Hung Te-Chung’s watercolour skills. He makes use of the medium’s character – light and soft – to depict the flowers in dreamlike haziness; his fictional elements interweave with the reality like double exposure. A mysterious, elusive and serene atmosphere is thus successfully created in this series.

Going back to the question at the beginning of the essay – how do we define Hung Te-Chung’s current style of art? Hung once said, “semi-abstraction is similar to realism.” And this is the reason that he switches so easily between realistic and scenic style, abstraction and semi-abstraction, ink art and drip painting – without being confined by any schools or styles of art. He dives into the combo zone of stones and water, reflecting on the change and relation between his inner self and the external world. This is the answer Hung Te-Chung aims to offer.

1 Anna Moszynska, Abstract Art, trans. Li-Chuan Huang, back trans. Ting-Ru Lin.
2 Herschel B. Chipp, Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics.