Title: Day and Night
Year: 2007
Medium: Chinese ink on paper
The painting 'Day and Night' attracted me through its simplicity yet it requires a deep thought for it. Different from other 'Chinese ink' paintings, the big artpiece also gave that feeling of wanting to explore into the meaning itself.
The use of chinese ink for this size of art work is uncommon and whenever the medium is mentioned, beautiful sceneries or scriptures enter my mind. However, after looking at the way it is painted and also, the idea of the topic addressed, it gives a new style of creating a painting by using the old medium itself. I was actually overwhelmed by the big black patches in it. Not much toning was visible and it was quite a dark painting. To think of it, somehow I felt closely related to the term 'Surrealism'.
Surrealism paintings are interesting and unique. They are full of feelings and thoughts. No exact and confirmed story about them and people are free to judge. I was reminded of the famous surrealist artist, 'Salvador Dali'. He was famous for his interpretation of dreams. He had remarkable memories and had fantastic theories behind all of them. His paintings were colourful and thus varies from Gao Xing Jian's work. The similarity of them however both managed to express their ideas through the art pieces. By using chinese ink, I believed that the artist wanted to show that chinese ink are not only limited to paint scriptures and beautiful landscapes. With him originating from China and since its one of the Asian cultures, creating a 'thinking' masterpiece but with input of 'Western' knowledge of interpretation and styles, it is creative in fact.
Another thought was about the artworks painted by Edward-Munch. In one of the paintings, The Scream, the main figure was screaming, expressing himself in the pathway. In addition the figures did not have a characteristic face or body shape similar to the figures in Gao's painting. Although the figure in his painting was not shown screaming, it actually similar to the 'lonely' and the focus was actually being put upon him. Also, viewers could feel that both were expressing something although in Gao's painting, it is more towards the silent expression of thoughts.
Due to the black and white term, the idea of portraying a sun is not that clear because it can also be mistook as the moon. Back to the title, 'Day and Night', I wondered too which time was the moment in the painting. Personally, I considered it to be during the night, since I viewed it as a dream.
Despite it, the artist has different perceptions and I agree that he has a wonderful hypothesis. The consciousness of self between the first, second and third stage do differ. Consciousness one might say comprised qualities such as self-awareness and the sensitivity between the person and the surrounding. This can lead to the part where one acknowledges oneself as I, You, He or She. It is a personal journey of self to original starting point from the various stages of awareness. Every person has undergone these stages and sometimes, from the consciousness state, he or she came to a different level, which is called the 'sub-conscious' state. During this very moment, I analyse this stage near to dreaming too. Besides that, the colour grey is being used to define the original colour of human existence, explaining the reality of mankind journey are all being divided into dissimilar ways. The shape like 'doors' maybe resembles the 'gate' to different levels of consciousness and the wind brewing adds on to the 'situation'.
Meanwhile, this particular artist too is well known for his creation of 'crisps' or 'cracks' on the paper itself. The urge of wanting to touch the paper must be restrained. They were well executed and some of the fine cracks were intricate, reflecting the marvellous technique of his.
In conclusion, Gao Xing Jian has managed to bring up this topic of consciousness through this 'Day and Night'. Regardless of the time, day or night, the perception of self through the different stages 'I', 'You', 'He' or 'She' is unlikely to be avoided.
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