Fan Hsuan HSU
Xiang Jiang I
Distemper on paper
91x72cm
2020
Nature may not speak, but it has a voice - light and shadow, wind and sound, interweaving life and death, rise and fall, sixty moments in a snap of a finger, nine hundred births and deaths in an instant. Thus, a moment is not just a moment, and eternity is no longer entirely eternal. The fleeting illusions in the woods are like mirages, both real and unreal, conveying the truth of permanence and immutability through momentary changes, and putting the eternal truth on impermanence, reflecting the way of nature in tranquility.
Compared to nature's expression, the world of the mind is more subtle and profound. Therefore, in my creative process, I gradually let go of more narrative, no longer chasing perfect images, but building a relationship between imagination and nature, gradually leading the visual perception to emotional feelings. And I see this process of transfer as a "purification" that removes impurities and simplifies the expression. Through purification and restraint, I try to embody the meaning of "freehand" within the realistic category, using the traces of writing to carry the imagination of thoughts, giving the greatest freedom in color, description, and form, like the moment that turns into eternity.
I planted a cherry blossom tree in the backyard of my studio, and the tree, which was less than three feet tall, has now grown to the second-floor window. Every year, the flowers bloom and fall, with a particularly colorful and brilliant display at full bloom. However, the flowering period is brief, and with a gust of wind or a rain shower, the petals flutter and fall, and the splendor fades in an instant. This is an expression of impermanence in the ordinary, a fleeting and delicate beauty, like a flash of light and shadow, a sense of aesthetic consciousness of illusion and disillusion, as well as an embodiment of incomplete beauty. One flower, one world, one thought, one eternity.