Although it is a fine hook with a brush, Huang Junwei's paintings are always foggy, ethereal, illusory, and have a vague sense of space. Overlapping spaces advance layer by layer in the picture, constantly extending, missing identity attributes, social relations of the characters, or lying or standing, or poles far away, or looking down; representing the traditional landscape bamboo stone and contemporary closed box on the silk. People and things, things and things, present a strong sense of alienation and desolation.
In addition to the good style of the picture, Huang Junwei's creation also allows us to see an aspect of the contemporary interpretation of traditional ink by the younger generation of ink artists, and of course, it also allows us to see more possibilities for the continuation of traditional ink under the sharp advance.
Huang Junwei "Wild Hope Five" Silk Composite Material 55x145cm 2020
Viewers who know a little about traditional Chinese painting probably won't deny such a perception – although the image structure of Huang Junwei's paintings is very contemporary, the picture atmosphere is very traditional. So, the question that ensues is, where is the contemporary era? Where is the tradition?
"Long-range"
Chinese painting has always been "easy to see what is close to the object, and difficult to form with the heart of the far away", which is illusory and invisible in the tangible, and the possibility of movement and continuity in the immovable, in order to achieve the painter and the viewer with the emotion of the picture and enter the distance. This far includes both detachment from the present and the present, as well as detachment from the whole of time and space.
In order to realize this "far", Guo Xi of the Song Dynasty once created the method of three distances, which is called "flat, far-reaching, and lofty", which is regarded as a guideline for future generations. But today, when the world picture is so different, for the access of "far", Huang Junwei has found another path - the superposition of space.
From left to right Jungle, East Sea, Nishihara, Snow, Silk Composite, 100×70cm×4, 2021
Huang Junwei is very sensitive to spatial relations, and the spaces in his pictures are often crisscrossed, and the walls on one side after another are superimposed layer by layer, going deeper into the interior of the picture, and finally disappearing into an invisible void, as if people stand at this end looking at the endless rooms in the endless corridors. Sometimes, even if people are in a box-like cramped space, Huang Junwei has to use countless lines/wooden stakes to divide the space into several, and the main scene of the picture is obviously indoors, but there are changing white clouds flowing above. The dislocation motion relationship of people, objects and fields is constantly changing and switching with the viewer's wandering, which seems to be both real and illusory. Sometimes, through the interaction of the spatial theater, he also brings the viewer's visual experience, emotions and ideas into a natural and mutual relationship.
Cloud Of Chaos IV, Silk Composite Material, 30×53cm, 2021
Huang Junwei blurs space and time, disrupting the usual visual experience, and the latter two often revolve around the former. The pursuit of spatial certainty from the perspective is the principle of perspective. Although traditional Chinese painting has always followed the perspective of scattered points, the principle of "first fixing the momentum, second division between the frame" still makes it follow certain physical laws. Later in the development of new ink painting, in the exploration of non-abstraction, it is generally inseparable from the creative law of inheriting and turning and turning and turning back.
Huang Junwei "No.32" Comprehensive Materials (Paper, Silk Collage) 70x100cm 2016
Huang Junwei "Shoushan Ji" Silk Comprehensive Material 80x200cm 2019
But Huang Junwei obviously went further, and in his creations, traces of spatial splicing can often be seen, disturbing the linear sense of time. Flowing clouds in the sky, still ground like water, four closed walls, dead wood and cold branches, mountains and stones, often appear in a picture at the same time. However, due to the fact that the edges of the space stitching are connected in a kind of swirling connection, the picture does not have any sense of stitching.
Breeze and Return, Shuno No.3, Silk Composite Material, 70×100cm, 2021
In such a space, there is no sense of time. Huang Junwei's paintings also rarely represent objects of time. Even if there is an occasional full moon in the painting, it is placed in a box building, causing the viewer to sigh "I don't know what year it is".
This kind of picture processing makes Huang Junwei's painting produce a foggy visual effect, as if people are dreaming in the smoke clouds. The mist places the small and oppressive spatial sensations in a fullness and emptiness, and everything and the more distant existence is between this filling and the void, slowly unfolding in the viewer's mental picture.
Image Making
In Huang Junwei's paintings, people who often appear in houses or sit on rocks on water beaches or stand on poles in small boats. No matter what form it takes, man always has no movement of movement. But Huang Junwei's picture is by no means an instantaneous visual presentation, let alone a realistic depiction of an object approaching.
Breeze and Gui, No.4, Silk Composite Material, 70×100cm, 2021
The sense of time that disappears in space is the inevitable result of Huang Junwei's integration of all the reasonable understanding of the world and the complete perception of society into one place, and the flow of time and the extension of space are put into the picture together. This is a manifestation of the world from Vipassana, and it is also an expression based on the source of the mind. Therefore, when we watch Huang Junwei's paintings, what we perceive is never the psychological feeling of the moment of the object, nor is it a certain action made by people. He depicts an intrinsic, long-term psychological feeling that people live in the world at the moment—the alienation of man from himself, from others, from society, from nature.
Nowang Pool, Silk Mixed Material, 40×60cm, 2021
This makes Huang Junwei's paintings, although they start from their own intimate and meticulous emotional experiences, they can resonate widely among viewers, especially young people. However, unlike the traditional painting "travel near and far, pitching and taking", starting from the understanding of the creation of heaven and earth, the self-sensuality essay ink is freely sprinkled, Huang Junwei's creation from the beginning is from the image production, the picture processing is also much more rigorous. After all, Huang Junwei, who was born in the 80s, was not trapped by the huge ink painting tradition.
Day & Moon Ii, Silk Composite, 60×60cm, 2021
From the early discussion of the relationship between man and space in "No One's Voice", to the deduction of the relationship between people, things and space in "Breeze and Return" to a larger natural landscape environment, Huang Junwei's creation is a process of gradual hammering and refining, and the creation of the latter stage can always be seen in the later works of the previous stage. After sorting out the topic of interest, he will always understand the path and method of interpreting the topic in traditional painting and in Western painting.
Sun & Moon No. 3, Silk Composite Material, 85×50cm, 2021
Chaos Cloud No. 3, Silk Composite Material, 48×70cm, 2021
This creative concept, which begins with image making and looks at the interpretation techniques of Western art, and even juxtaposes the details, symbols and ideas in traditional Chinese landscape painting with modern visual arts and concepts in the works, can be said to be a noteworthy aspect of the ink painting of young artists.
Huang Junwei,"The Breeze and the Return of the Fourth", Silk Composite Material, 60x150cm, 2018
Huang Junwei "Breeze and Return to the Fifth" Silk Composite Material 60x150cm 2018
Huang Junwei,"No Man Vocals 2017-21", Silk Composite Materials, 60x150cm, 2017
The heart still admires the profound and magnificent spirit of ink painting, but it is not limited to traditional pen and ink in expression, which is of course due to the fact that these two generations of young people do not have such a heavy "cultural baggage", and the creative motivation often comes from self-seeking and internal drive, and on the other hand, due to the disappearance of cultural barriers brought about by globalization, the popularity of Western art and image production methods in China.
Tang Zhangxuan used the phrase "foreign teachers create, get the heart of the source", building up the "natural kingdom" in the hearts of traditional Chinese literati, and also giving the scholar a powerful independent spiritual system to operate. After a hundred years of Chinese painting and the fusion of Chinese and Western cultures, in Huang Junwei's works, we once again see this ancient phrase in a truly powerful flash in Chinese art.
Exhibiting at the exhibition
Exhibition Title: Breeze and Return - Huang Junwei's Works Exhibition
Exhibition time: December 18, 2021 - February 20, 2022
Venue: Xiamen Baolong Art Center