Long Pai Shen Ma: Chen Liang, Yu Hang

8 November - 7 December 2022
When trying to find the exact shape or clear clues, the images of Chen Liang and Yu Hang are like barriers in front of them. At this moment, following the tracks of unconscious activities, the traces of physical actions and perceptions, a labyrinth-like wilderness is between the blurred borders of words and paintings, and the boundaries of history and civilization are unfolding slowly, boulders and ravines, weeds and bird tracks, are all the eccentric vitality on this wilderness.
 
Chen Liang had close ties with temples and religion in his childhood. He studied with artists who came to the village to paint and planted the seeds for exploring the rituals, mysticism and belief mechanisms of the village. Starting from this, Chen Liang shows his obscure and twisted writing traces (or paintings without thinking) on ​​leather or rice paper, the obscure expression is actually a direct connection with society and nature in Chen Liang's eyes. The atmosphere of simplicity can also be seen in Yu Hang's works: he obtains an instant image through repeated smearing and coordination. As Yu Hang said, the meanings of these images seem to change every second, taken from what we see in daily life, and transferred with time and space. We cannot discover which powers are giving orders, nor can we assert that the traces of chaos exist only in the inorganic nature of nature.
 
“Long Pai Shen Ma" uses "Long Pai" as a symbol of power, and presents the symbolic meaning of monumental images through the transformation of different media to leave the sacred space. It is also continued with “Shen Ma", one of the most characteristic totems of the ethnic group, which contains the dispersion of nature worship and belief among the tribes. This ambiguity brought about by transcendence and hybridity becomes an ethnographic narrative, showing the power of spiritual energy.
 
The two meanings and the images created by the two are not only intertextual in form, but also similar in creative dimension. The visual energy forces the viewer to enter the wilderness, and the avoidance of the power subject leads the viewer to turn to non-specified spiritual thinking. As Durkheim said, "If the totem system chooses a natural species as a symbol, it is only because this species has become the object of ritual attitude before the totem", then the departure of the specific object brings more imagination space, turning his attention to himself, pacing between beliefs and desires, and bringing innovation through estrangement in art history and media expression.