Critical Reflection on Studio Practice: The Intersection of Chance, Tradition, and Gaze in Contemporary Figure Painting
Introduction
My studio practice explores the complex dynamics of power and intimacy in Asian family relationships through abstract figurative painting. This investigation combines traditional artistic principles with contemporary expression, particularly focusing on the role of chance, spiritual resonance, and the power of gaze in portraying complex familial relationships.
The Poetics of Chance in Emotional Expression
Marlene Dumas,Last Man Standing(2023).Frith Street Gallery
Marlene Dumas,Loss(2023).Frith Street Gallery
Marlene Dumas,The Devil may Care(2024).Frith Street Gallery
In my practice, the use of chance elements becomes a crucial method for achieving emotional authenticity. This approach draws inspiration from various sources across cultures and time periods. Marlene Dumas's portrait paintings, with their fluid, ink-like technique, demonstrate how controlled accidents in paint application can create powerful emotional resonance. Her concept of 'Pareidolia' - finding meaningful patterns in ambiguous forms - aligns with my understanding of how uncontrolled elements can convey deeper emotional truths.
This understanding is further exemplified in historical precedents such as Yan Zhenqing's "Draft of a Eulogy for My Nephew," where the emotional power emerges not from technical perfection but from the uncontrolled elements that appear in moments of genuine emotional expression. This perspective extends to Western painting tradition, as articulated by Mégnin: "Colors that can strongly express human feelings are more faithful to nature than drawing." From Rubens onwards, the expressive potential of color and its inherent unpredictability has proven more capable of conveying authentic emotional states than rigid linear precision.
In my paintings, like Dumas's work, diluted paint creates unexpected effects that mirror the fluid nature of emotional experiences. These naturally occurring patterns and textures become metaphors for the complex and often uncontrollable nature of human relationships and feelings. The way the paint flows and settles creates a kind of visual poetry that speaks to the deeper, often ineffable aspects of emotional experience.
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Yan Zhenqing (顏真卿) ，Ji Zhi Wengao (祭侄文稿) Draft Eulogy for Nephew Jiming.https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=132944702
Zeqi Tang,Glaze(2024)
The Power of Gaze and Viewer Engagement
The concept of gaze in art history extends beyond mere looking - it encompasses the complex power dynamics inherent in the act of viewing and being viewed. Art historian John Berger notably argued that the way we see things is deeply affected by what we know or believe, making gaze a crucial element in how artworks construct and convey meaning. In visual art studies, scholars have noted that gaze serves multiple functions: it can embody social hierarchies (Mulvey, 1975), convey psychological states, and either challenge or reinforce existing social power structures (Foucault, 1975).
Historical precedents across Eastern and Western art traditions demonstrate the profound role of gaze in constructing power relations. In traditional Chinese painting, Gu Kaizhi's "Admonitions of the Court Instructress" (女史箴图) uses complex exchanges of gazes to reveal hierarchical relationships within the imperial court, while Gu Hongzhong's "Night Revels of Han Xizai" (韩熙载夜宴图) employs multiple gazes to construct social power narratives. Buddhist wall paintings at Dunhuang similarly utilize directional gazes of deities to establish spiritual hierarchies. In Western art, Manet's "Olympia" (1863) marks a pivotal moment where the direct gaze of the female figure challenges traditional power dynamics, while contemporary artist Marlene Dumas's "The Teacher" (1987) demonstrates how gaze direction and intensity can create psychological tension and power relations.
In my own work, I deliberately direct figures' gazes both internally within the painting and outward toward viewers, creating multiple layers of power relationships. The mother-daughter gazes in my paintings often reflect ambivalent power dynamics - simultaneously nurturing and controlling, loving and oppressive. This treatment of gaze becomes a visual metaphor for the complex power relations in Asian family structures, particularly between mothers and daughters.
The exploration of gaze in my practice is particularly evident in works like "Gaze" and "Whisper", where I construct complex viewing relationships that blur the boundary between painted space and viewer's reality. In "Gaze", for instance, I create a sophisticated triangulation of looks: the right figure directs their gaze at the left figure, while the left figure looks beyond the painting's frame. This outward gaze appears to engage with viewers looking at flowers, but when viewers observe the right figure, their line of sight completes a circular viewing relationship - effectively bridging the painted world and physical reality. This circular gaze pattern creates an intricate power dynamic where the viewer becomes both observer and participant in the painting's psychological narrative.
In "Whisper", the gaze operates as a more subtle instrument of power. The right figure's gaze directed at the left figure embodies a gentler form of authority - suggesting how power can be exercised through tender gestures and intimate moments. This work explores how familial power dynamics, particularly in Asian contexts, often manifest through soft, seemingly nurturing interactions rather than overt displays of authority.
Zeqi Tang,Gaze(2024)
Zeqi Tang,Whisper(2024)
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Marlene Dumas's， "The Teacher" (1987)
Manet， "Olympia" (1863)
Traditional Spirit in Contemporary Practice
My artistic approach is deeply rooted in the Chinese academic tradition, which emphasizes the integration of Chinese and Western painting principles. The Chinese "Six Principles" of painting, particularly the primary principle of "spirit resonance" (气韵生动), has significantly influenced my work. This principle, which prioritizes the portrayal of spiritual and character essence as the highest artistic standard, guides my careful attention to facial expressions and emotional states in my figures.
This spiritual emphasis manifests through my technical approach, which centers on the use of diluted oil paint on linen canvas. The diluted brown pigments, when applied to linen, create a tone and texture remarkably similar to Asian skin tones. The random precipitation of paint particles creates natural marks and patterns reminiscent of unexpected skin spots or moles - those seemingly random marks that appear on our bodies. This material behavior creates an intriguing parallel between the unpredictability of painting process and the uncontrollable aspects of our physical existence.
The use of these natural effects serves both practical and metaphorical purposes. On a practical level, they create authentic skin-like textures that enhance the work's physicality. Metaphorically, these unpredictable material behaviors reflect the complex dynamics of relationships and the way cultural influences permeate our lives. The interaction between paint and canvas mimics the subtle ways in which family relationships and cultural expectations leave their marks on us.
Gender, Power and Family Dynamics in Contemporary Asian Society
My work, while emerging from personal experience, is deeply informed by feminist theory and power relations analysis, particularly Chizuko Ueno's examination of mother-daughter relationships in Asian families and Foucault's theories of power dynamics. Ueno's insight that "mother-daughter relationships are simultaneously intimate and oppressive" (The Subordinate Woman, 1998) particularly resonates with my artistic exploration. She reveals how mothers, while attempting to create more possibilities for their daughters, paradoxically pull them back into traditional gender roles, embodying a fundamental contradiction in family relationships.
This theoretical framework aligns with Foucault's concept of disciplinary power, where control is exercised not through overt force but through the subtle conditioning of bodies and behaviors. In my paintings, this manifests in the depiction of intimate moments and gestures that carry implicit power dynamics. As Ueno notes, "mothers unconsciously become agents of patriarchal society, deeply embedding social expectations of women into their daughters' bodies and consciousness" (Women's Awakening, 2002).
The emotional labor that Ueno identifies in mother-daughter relationships particularly influences my artistic approach. Her analysis of how mothers rationalize their self-sacrifice as manifestations of maternal love, while unconsciously reproducing patterns of subjugation, informs my treatment of figures and spaces in my work. These theoretical insights are further enriched by my encounters with contemporary art practices.
Sara Ahmed's "Living a Feminist Life" has been particularly influential in validating my approach to emotional expression in art. Through my encounters with contemporary artists, particularly Tracey Emin's emotionally charged works and discussions with Geraint during tutorials, I was encouraged to confront emotions more directly in my practice. Ahmed's theoretical framework provided crucial support for this intuitive direction.
Ahmed argues that emotions, particularly those often dismissed as merely personal - such as anger, frustration, and joy - are not just private experiences but crucial elements of feminist consciousness and practice. This perspective resonates deeply with my artistic approach, encouraging me to view my emotional responses not as limitations to be overcome, but as valuable sources of insight and authentic expression.
This approach aligns with Ahmed's assertion that personal feelings can be powerful tools for understanding and challenging broader social structures. Her work has given me the confidence to embrace rather than suppress emotional content in my art, helping me trust the authenticity of personal experience while recognizing the political significance of personal feelings. Through this theoretical framework, I've come to understand how emotional truth can serve as a bridge to universal experience. My work's emotional content thus becomes not just personal expression, but part of a larger dialogue about family relationships and power dynamics in contemporary society.
Future Directions
Moving forward, I plan to explore larger scale works while maintaining the delicate balance between control and chance, deepen the investigation of traditional principles in contemporary context, and expand the dialogue between Eastern and Western artistic traditions. I also aim to further develop the relationship between viewer and artwork through gaze and spatial relationships.
Conclusion
Through this body of work, I strive to create a visual language that honors traditional principles while engaging with contemporary concerns. The integration of chance elements, traditional spiritual emphasis, and viewer engagement through gaze creates a complex dialogue between past and present, East and West, personal and universal.
Bedford, E., 2010. Marlene Dumas: Against the Wall. New York: David Zwirner Books.
Cahill, J., 1994. The Painter's Practice: How Artists Lived and Worked in Traditional China. New York: Columbia University Press.
Berger, J., 1972. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Books.
Foucault, M., 1975. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated from French by A. Sheridan, 1977. New York: Pantheon Books.
Mulvey, L., 1975. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen, 16(3), pp.6-18.
Wu, H., 1996. The Double Screen: Medium and Representation in Chinese Painting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wu, H., 1997. Pictures of the Mind: The "Night Revels of Han Xizai" Scroll. Art Bulletin, 79(2), pp.293-327.
Fraser, S.E., 2004. Performing the Visual: The Practice of Buddhist Wall Painting in China and Central Asia, 618-960. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Clark, T.J., 1985. The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bedford, E., 2010. Marlene Dumas: Against the Wall. New York: David Zwirner Books.
Clark, T.J., 1985. The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ahmed, S., 2017. Living a Feminist Life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Ueno, C., 1998. The Subordinate Woman [女性の分断]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Ueno, C., 2002. Women's Awakening [女性の覚醒]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Additional References Mentioned in the Text
Dumas, M., (No specific publication referenced)
Manet, E., (Artwork "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe")
Notes
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For some sources like Marlene Dumas and Edouard Manet, no specific publication details were provided in the original text.
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For Japanese authors (Ueno Chizuko), the original Japanese titles are included in brackets.