Turning to the east is a popular phenomenon that grabbed the attention of westerners disillusioned by Europe’s lack of spiritual richness since the 1960s. The release note of Ink Traces exhibition is a statement that this trend also exists in the realm of art.
Four artists from different countries including Switzerland, Spain, India, and China are collaborating on this showcase which is held together by a common passion for Chinese landscape painting. “Even though Kochi is becoming a hub for artistic exposition, there’s hardly any exhibition that highlights the Chinese tradition,” says Akhiljith Velluva, who was at China Academy of Art on a scholarship programme and is currently a tutor at the Government College of Fine Arts, Thrissur.
Before Ink Traces kicks off this Saturday, we talk to these creators to find out more about the intricacies of the traditional form.
One with nature
Go by history and it tells you about the intense correlation between the evolution of brushstrokes and Chinese calligraphy. Prominently revolving around ink and brushstrokes, the subtlety of Chinese art is evident in the use of very thin paper and silk which requires the students to master an element of pure meditation. Translating a landscape becomes a Herculean task as it is more than an object of perception and requires an immersion of oneself into it.
“What can be seen (you) and what cannot be seen (wu)—are considered as a whole and both aspects are interacting. There is an immanent perception of the world: beyond shapes, everything is integrated into a bigger movement in which we are also involved,” says Spanish artist Ruth Castilla Mora, about what interests her in Chinese art. Her works record the evanescent elements of nature and also dwell on the rhythm of nature.
Diverse touch
Raised in this aesthetic tradition, veteran practitioner Guangying Dai hailing from Hangzhou—a teacher at the China Academy of Art who’s exhibiting at Gallery Twenty Seven—has perfected his art over the years to create a ‘space’ in his artwork where the painter and viewer can communicate. One among the collective, Lausanne-based Claire Betti, leans on her theatre training to represent her landscape.
“When I go into my studio with the memory of a landscape and the impatience to translate it, these emotions become movements. Today, I do not dance anymore, I put it on a paper,” says Claire. As they bring their conceptions of landscapes through the medium of their art form to Kochi, they hope that it’ll make people rethink the connection between nature and man.
From July 28 at
Gallery 27, Mattancherry.