As the Japanese word yume ni naru signifies, when the consciousness becomes absorbed in the vortex of preoccupation, the boundaries of reality are shaken, and this intermediate realm between dream and reality serves as the liminal space in which one learns to engage with the world. This is where Chen Tianyi’s practice is grounded, in his sketches of foreign landscapes, especially the streets and lanes of his Tokyo residence. Though expressing the concentration and displacement of encoded desires, the artist depicts foreign landscapes that are unconsciously processed to both reveal strangeness and yet imply nostalgia. In this enclave he created, space is not an objective vessel, but a field of possibilities for physical action.
The decision to work with mineral pigments is a crucial aspect of Chen Tianyi’s practice. This process of materializing bodily experience corresponds to the productive nature of ‘affection of the body’. Regardless of layering or scraping, when engaging with the surface of the pigments, his physical movement is both an inscription of memory traces and a reverse-construction through tactile feedback. Additionally, in a time when digital technology is increasingly deconstructing material reality, the material existence of mineral pigments serves as an embodied anchor to counter the visualization of memory.
Selected works:
Precedente
Successivo
