Page 44 - Genius

lu Jun
lives and works in Zhuhai, China
SEARCH THE ARTIST ONLINE
 BeWiLDereD (3 PANElS), 2008 PIgMENT PrINT ON ArT PAPEr 118x29 IN. /300×75 CM.
 HeGemony (NO.1), 2008 PIgMENT PrINT ON FINE ArT PAPEr 31,5x94 IN. /80×240 CM.
http://i.cn.yahoo.com/lujun8187829
Law of Ink • Delight of Water: Effusive and without any fixed pattern,
the water will flow to the lower if it is free from a container. So it is with
the water in nature. It flows down from high mountains wildly to the sea
in a straightforward manner through valleys one after another, separating
mountains, etching the ground, and leaving the earth a panorama of myriad
views and landscapes.
Unlike oil painting that prevails in the west, Chinese painting is subject
to water completely. With aqueous inks for painting and paper made of
such natural materials as white mulberry and linen, the literary figures and
painters in Ancient China created a game that helped build their personality
into the sophisticated relationship between the water, the ink and the
paper. The uncertainty in water provides reasons for the Chinese painters
to play games with their imaginations and test their abilities. They wash,
dye, splash and sprinkle, and built up complex delightful imageries in the
simplicity and purity of the ink color. The Chinese painting with aqueous ink
contributes to the established style of China’s painting and also constitutes
an important part of the cultural experience of the Chinese.
Completely irrelevant to each other, photography and Chinese ink and wash
painting are entirely different in terms from materials to operation with one
as the product of the industrial civilization and the other the quintessence
of ancient handicrafts. Photography, however, has developed into a widely-
used artistic medium and measure for people to express themselves in a
modern time. It has been a standing crux how to incorporate photography
into Chinese culture and thinking and let it strides into the modern age
with ink and wash.
A perfect representation of the complicated changes between water and
color by means of photographing the moments when the water and color
blend and take changes, this group of photographs by lU Jun conforms to
the experience in the Chinese ink and wash tradition and even exceeds
the depicting nature of Chinese painting, promoting the ink and wash
experience to a more abstract modern expression. Dripping paints into
transparent containers, he flashed down the moments for the paints to
mingle with the water and composed the works in a concluding stage on the
basis of digital technology. It was a fairly lengthy process of photographing
for the fluidity of the water and the paints were amazingly difficult to control
in the beginning. A great deal of practice had rewarded lu Jun with the
rules to handle the matter, however. In this game of controlling and anti-
controlling, moreover, he also found that this kaleidoscopically changing
game was exactly a reflection of the wonderful process of this world from
abstract images to concrete ones and from concrete images to abstract
ones, which was also full of the appeal of the Chinese ink and wash painting.
Therefore, this group of images not only lets us trace back to the traditions
but also helps us behold a modern strength that surpasses the taste of
the literary figures brings the interpreting into a time of remote antiquity,
thus constituting the abstract narration of the Zeitgeist of our modern age.
bAO kun
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