Flower, Not《花非花》
A Group Exhibition by Oh Chai Hoo 胡財和 (b. 1960), Song Ling 宋陵 (b. 1961), Hua Jun 花俊 (b. 1970), Wang Shaoqiang 王紹強 (b. 1970), Jiang Heng 江衡 (b. 1972), Tan Seow Wei 陳曉薇 (b. 1979) and Chui Pui Chee 徐沛之 (b. 1980)
Venue: iPreciation (誰先覺), 50 Cuscaden Road, HPL House #01-01, Singapore 249724
Private Preview: Feb 4, 2021 (By Invitation Only)
Exhibition Opens to Public: Feb 5 – Feb 27, 2021
(Due to social distancing, prior viewing arrangement is recommended. Please call 6339 0678 or email Brian at brian.foong@ipreciation.com)
花非花，霧非霧，
夜半來，天明去。
來如春夢幾多時？
去似朝雲無覓處。
A flower it seems, perhaps not. Was it the mist? I do not know.
She comes at night and leaves at cockcrow.
Much like a dream that could not stay.
Or maybe the clouds, fading away.
– Bai Juyi, Tang Dynasty
Our love affair with the bloom and wither dates back centuries. It continues to manifest in the present time, but there is more than meets the eye. Borrowing a line from Bai Juyi’s poem, and much like Magritte’s La Trahison des images, Flower, Not is a study on the relationship between meaning and representation. Seeking new visual figures of speech, seven artists – Oh Chai Hoo (b. 1960), Song Ling (b. 1961), Hua Jun (b. 1970), Wang Shaoqiang (b. 1970), Jiang Heng (b. 1972), Tan Seow Wei (b. 1979) and Chui Pui-Chee (b. 1980), drew on their cultural heritages, socio-political backgrounds and generational influences to imbue fresh connotations to the age-old imagery.
The lionhearted Song Ling presents his rebellious take on the ironic phenomenon of alienation and isolation in an increasingly connected world. Maintaining an unwavering stance to celebrate imperfections, Oh Chai Hoo is back to question an impetuous world that downplays the beauty of flaws. Just as Wang Shaoqiang continues to sail through contemporary Chinese ink with his landscape imageries that interweave latter-day influences and ancient origins, the ancient Heart Sutra finds its perpetual modern relevance through the quirky lens of Hua Jun. Jiang Heng remains committed to confronting the pervasive nature of materialism and the struggle to uphold established moral ideals. In such times of uncertainty, Tan Seow Wei has constructed a quaint, whimsical place for retreat and to embrace oneself. Chui Pui-chee too finds solace in a realm that is long gone yet vividly present within his retrained brushstrokes.
Together, their works form a critical subtext of modernity.
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