When Typhoon Signal No. 8 or above is hoisted tomorrow (13 Oct), the exhibition will be closed. The exhibition will be reopened within 3 hours if the signal No. 8 or above is lowered before 5pm.

Artist’s Statement

Before the cosmos came into being, it was nascent within the primal void, where neither time nor space existed…later, when the cosmos emerged, space became visible, but time did not.

Yet just because something is invisible, doesn’t mean that it does not exist. Time and energy exist in a formless state. They cannot be seen, but they can be sensed, just as when you look at a mountain, you can sense the energetic momentum that brought the mountain into being. From the perspective of our limited human life span, this kind of momentum appears as static. Yet the forms of nature are always created through a cataclysmic explosion of energy and life force. It is just this kind of dynamic energy and life force that captivates me as an artist.

Regardless of whether a person’s behaviour is considered as normal or abnormal, all human actions are imbued with vital energy. In the world of nature, all the phenomena that we take for granted--whether a sunrise or a sunset, the sky or the sea, a mountain stream or a flowing river, a tempest or a rainfall--are imbued with a mysterious life force.

When I experience these things in daily life, I feel intensely the energetic power contained within them. In my artistic practice, my goal is to transpose this energetic power into form. Any artist who seeks to act as the medium through which this transposition can take place must have deep reservoirs of strength and energy to make this possible. Otherwise they will not be able to fully utilize their unique methods and practice to enact this transposition. When I am painting, I am always working to the absolute limits of my strength. If my energetic force in that moment is insufficient to the task I have set myself, or if my control of the process is not good enough, then I have no choice but to destroy the painting and start all over again.This kind of creative practice is a process of amalgamation of natural intuition and technical control; there are no set rules to follow, and only the painter herself truly understands the means by which this process is realized.

Energy is an abstract concept. But when someone views my works and feels the energetic force emanating from them, then he or she will enter into their energetic frequency and experience the sense of resonance with nature and with life that informs everything I do as an artist.

Liu Ying

Enquiry: +852 2526 9019 /  hanart@hanart.com