PREFACE
Folding Mountain
Article: Lin Shuchuan
The expression of paper or paper nature is an important clue for viewing and thinking in Huang Jingjie's works. From dealing with the appearance of the book emotionally at the beginning to the rational deconstruction of seperating the paper out of the book. The artist's early creations of acrylic on canvas have been trying to transfer the picture from the image of ‘paper’ to the action of ‘folding’. And trying to find the most comfortable relationship between color and structure under the action of ‘folding’. This is the first transition in Huang Jingjie's series of works: from image to action. At this stage, paper is still paper.
In the following process of creation and thinking, the artist began to abandon the familar materials and try to create color on silk. The creative logic of his thinking and expression has continued. In the process of ‘folding’, the edge lines have been blurred. From the clarity in the fold to the ambiguity in the blur, we can see the artist's hesitation, and this hesitation is worth pondering. In the process of transformation between the Eastern and Western painting materials, the one related to images and techniques may be the simplest. What is really needed to be overcome is a ‘stickiness’ that we can imagine as a physical change in medium density from oily to watery, and it is also an aesthetic difference that has nothing to do with language. During this process, Huang Jingjie tried to break the boundaries of materials, and tried to express softness on soft materials. Paper that was no longer folded in half was torn and pasted, forming a calm and broken personal landscape. This is Huang Jingjie's second transformation: from medium to language. Paper is also the boundary at this stage.
‘Folding Mountain’ is the title of this exhibition, and it is also a summary of the artist's recent creations. The artist began to use paper to make landscapes, and ‘freed’ from the logic of Western images that were constantly structured and deconstructed, and returned to emotional inner colors from rational color composition. At this time, the picture is shrouded in a layer of unreal light, and this light naturally divides mountains and water, night and day. At the mean time, the paper is no longer an independent object in the painting, it seems to be a symbol related to the divided objects. The‘thinning’ treatment eliminates the established meaning of the mountain, and the mountain is no longer in the picture. It is just a choice made by the artist at the corner of the creation, or a head-up after breaking from habit and comfort. This is Huang Jingjie's third transformation: paper is also a mountain.