Suspended Marks Featuring paintings, videos & installations by Yueying Zhong & Lampo Leong Saint Louis University Museum of Art 3663 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63103 * sluma@slu.edu * 314-977-3399 February 11 - March 23, 2003 Opening Reception: Saturday, February 15, 2003, 6-8pm By Jennifer Lin, Scanews Staff Chinese painting and calligraphy emphasize the spiritual strength within every stroke, and every stroke embodies expressive power and independent beauty. Yubi yumo was an expression that the ancient masters of Chinese painting used to question the existence and process of painting. It means that ink strokes should be executed by expressive marks. The creation of a painting begins with materials and ends with marks that make up the whole. Traditional Chinese painting has a history of studying the mark as an individual act, a physical act that an artist makes to produce the image of the painting. This physical expression within the individual mark is a creative process that is developed within both calligraphy and painting. "Calligraphy does not represent the visual world. Rather, the calligrapher takes the given form of the written character and using his own brushwork as a gestured and improvisational sign, recreates through personal expression the forces of nature, transcending the literal meaning of the written character in a new, expressive language." (Wen C. Fong, Art Historian, from Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, p 107, edited by Wen C. Fong and James C. Wyatt) "In Chinese art, an artist 'writes' painting. Here 'write' means that the stroke shows the artist's strength and the essence of nature. Chinese brush painting emphasizes on 'letting the brush stroke follow the emotion'." (Yueying Zhong) Can the mark within painting and calligraphy transcend and, through the collective whole, create a harmonious oneness that is Tao? Within painting and calligraphy there have been a suspended belief that the stroke creates a literal as well as symbolic/spiritual mark, which is also the image of the object. The artist practices this act over and over again, perfecting the physical motion of creating the image/mark. As an object, mark-making defines the subject of this exhibition. Suspended Marks is an exhibition about the use of marks, born out of a tradition that has culminated in the contemporary setting. Yueying Zhong and Lampo Leong began their training and artistic careers in China. Both artists came to the United States and currently have studios in Columbia, Missouri. They have developed their styles from this tradition of mark-making and incorporated the Western influence of their new setting. The two artists have faced the challenge of suspending marks within the gallery space in the three site-specific installations at the Saint Louis University Museum of Art. They have created scrolls that will be suspended in the middle of the main revolving exhibition gallery. The viewer will have the opportunity to see marks that are floating in space. Thus, the suspended marks will be the object as well as the subject of Suspended Marks. To some extent, the viewer holds the belief that a mark can create images that (s)he deems to be true; true in representation of an object, feeling, or theory of ideas. The viewer suspends a belief when (s)he enters the museum or gallery space to look at artworks. It is within this physical act of creation that suspends time and location for artists. The artist is able to transcend and communicate an image, emotion, or perception to which the viewer reacts and in which (s)he puts his/her own personal beliefs. Suspended Marks challenges both artists and viewers to suspend their beliefs and take a physical look at the work of Yueying Zhong and Lampo Leong. These site-specific installations allow the audiences to view the works painted on the translucent silk suspended from the ceiling of the gallery. The viewer is encouraged to walk around and interact with the pieces, leading his/her eyes to see the surface and marks simultaneously. The viewer may become aware of how one's eyes shift from a surface to the depth of space and how one directs one's eyes to see the suspended marks in the context of a greater whole of Tao. Artists' Biographical Information Yueying Zhong Yueying Zhong is a former Associate Professor at the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in China. Zhong is an artist and art critic with many achievements. He has published more than 50 academic papers in various art periodicals in China and Taiwan. He is the author of three books: Chronicles of Major Events in China, Western Art History, and Charm & Style. He was editor for many prestigious art magazines in China: Fine Arts, Garden of Fine Arts, Contemporary Academic Art, and Grand View of Fine Arts in China. He left China in 1995 to begin his career as a professional artist in the United States. His studio is in Columbia, Missouri. Lampo Leong Trained in the classical Chinese disciplines of calligraphy and painting at the Guangzhou Fine Arts Institute and currently Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Lampo Leong is one of the premier young artists on the international scene today. He has had 40 solo shows worldwide. In 2002 alone, his paintings were accepted for 33 national and international juried exhibitions. Among his 19 other awards, Leong won the gold medal at the XV Exposicao Coltctiva dos Artistas de Macau hosted by Leal Senado de Macao in 1998. Leong's calligraphic design was selected by the San Francisco Arts Commission for permanent installation in a new city park in San Francisco. Leong's work is a synthesis of the classical and the modern, a play of light and emotion, a dance between power and passion. The viewer is drawn into the painting by the elemental force of Leong's abstract vision, but then finds subtle layers of calligraphic glyphs and traditional landscapes to explore and celebrate. Leong says: "I integrate Chinese calligraphy as abstract patterns in my paintings by cutting calligraphic images done on rice-paper and collaging them onto canvas. The abstract arrangement of these fragmented icons in a free-floating cosmic composition evokes the sense and energy of Asian culture and synthesizes the experience and vision of a modern artist. These qualities are enhanced by glimmers of glowing illumination from gold metallic washes along with gestures of vitality and rhythmic strokes of wild cursive Chinese calligraphy, which resonate with an archaic spirit of the earth."