Where Light Travels - Improvisation, Gaze, and Scene Displacement in Lin Hao-Bai’s work.
Is time a pragmatic register that travels between minutes and seconds, or a rational
cycle that symbolizes the past, present, and future? Can a moment and eternity be
imprinted or marked? In the continuous displacement of time, how does life validate its
time-state? Relatively speaking, space also manifests its length, width, and height
through forms of displacement, to hold definition, fulfill function, and generate
connections in the process of interwoven links. Here, time and space are variable, and
people within, can also be said to be a kind of travel, encounter, experience, or
meeting. The process and result is simply memory, illusion, sensation, or awareness,
becoming dialectic between whole and fragment in the name of “matter” and “scene”...
With the extension of time or the expansion of space, life interweaves into alternating
music phrases, drawings, and texts, independent and assured, confounding the known and
unknown, preserved and forgotten, spontaneous, random but irreplaceable. However, how
much of time and space is sealed in the description of music phrases, drawings, or
texts? How many experiences have “hence” been lost, and how many “unknown” discoveries
have been preserved? In the transition between fiction and reality, how does one balance
the contradiction between “as if present” and “as if bygone”? Ultimately, it becomes a
memento with the coexistence of time stamps and space coordinates, returning and
wandering through the scene in evolving retrospect, “matter” and “scene” become vivid
and radiant once again...
The remnants of music phrases, sketches, and texts can all be regarded as portable
mementos and monuments of this solitary or shared journey, lingering within a certain
time, in a certain space, with a certain form of vocabulary, permitting fading
bleakness and eternal brilliance to coexist. It becomes the latitude and longitude, and
objective of the story, due to a displacement created by passing time and space. Its
twists and turns, ups and downs are written with a dynamic and still gaze. At this time,
the “matter” and “scene” may be temporary like a memento or permanent like a monument,
interacting between the artist, matter, and scene, undergoing gaze, touch, walk, hearing
and smell...and other integrated processes to become an aftertaste, moment, and image
after rumination.
The intimate relationship between “matter” and “scene” is akin to what the French
philosopher of aesthetics Marc Le Bot describes in his book Images du Corps (1986):
“Shape and field, interior and exterior, is one in the landscape...the body in the
perceptible world and geometric terrain procure an organized sum [...] which enables us
to see a whole form from earlier dismembered fragments, concurrently unraveling and
entangling.” Although discernible elements, including humans (and the body) have clear
boundaries, all fragments are just a “facade” of the whole, becoming disassembled and
inseparable through correspondence between shape and field, constructing an interaction
between interior and exterior.
Since 2009, Lin Hao-Bai’s work has entered “ritualization” following the path of
changing light and shadow. “Ritualization” constructs a landscape of images and meaning
with mementos and monuments, through “arranging” and “preserving” flowers, plants, or
objects, completing the memory and narrative of “event.” These tangible objects are set
in a reasonable, new order of time and space, in a common narrative function and similar
mode of memory, to become the source material to reproduce the “event.” Similar to an
enzyme, light distills and catalyzes, engraved on bygone times, connecting various
fragments into a whole, creating a spiritual field that traverses barriers of time and
space.
At present, the interconnection between “arrangement” and “preservation” is an important
means of still life painting “ritualization,” embodying the reproduced structure between
still life and field with explicit and implicit, external and internal, symbolizing the
relationship between openness and closure in different time-space. As can be seen in
Dossier, scattered slides, paper, or bottles on the tabletop reproduce their “original”
state in the form of undisclosed objects. Light casted on the white table and wall
exhibit various shadows like the background music of dancing demons, highlighting a
certain “event” plot with tension. The atmosphere generated by the blank space
stimulates the curiosity of the audience, observing its unknown plot. At present, the
still life gradually breaks away from the resting guise of the object, and enters an
active state of role-play, no longer quiet.
Furthermore, the glass jar that symbolizes a preserved state, either open or closed,
equivalent to the framed slide mounts of a slide, grants undeveloped images and records
an appearance that is half-concealed and half-revealed, allowing memory to temporarily
remain on the record–not yet decoded—in a state of spoken and unspoken. These objects
flexibly take on different roles, serving as records or mementos of past experiences,
awakening the prying desire to reset this time-space of the artist or viewer in the
context of simulating the scene of the “event.” The visual logic between “matter” and
“scene” from this sense of ritual is accentuated through the contrast between
“arrangement” and “preservation.” In the floating, dreamlike background of white tables
and white walls, the early narrative of Lin’s still life paintings is established using
various objects of clear imagery and vibrant colors as an approach
to reminisce or commemorate the past.
From life or travel objects, to plants and flowers, these exquisite and overflowing,
solitary or group “objects,” symbolize the tranquility of life, forming a “scene” full
of whimsy, illusion, improvisation, or change in order, that is “arranged” and
“preserved.” Through deliberate “arrangement” and symbolic “preservation” rituals, as a
memento or monument to an “event,” it becomes like a drama with a script, plot, text,
characters, and set design. “Conveying my views on life, interpersonal relationships and
life changes” (quoted from the artist’s statement) has long since escaped the historical
context of pure “sketch.” Whether camellia, rose, moth orchids, lisianthus, oriental
lily, tulip, poinsettia, hyacinth or other plants, potted or freshly cut, all are fused
with elegance, dignity, and order.
Flowers bloom and wilt, the seasons come and go, nature exhibits itself to the world in
accord to its laws and appearances. Whether budding, blooming, or withering, “everything
is surprising and unpredictable. The objects in the image are like actors
on stage, improvising” for him; “Life passes every moment in variance.” (Ibid.) Every
moment flowers bloom and wilt, people come and go, life is a script intertwined with
constant change. Through gaze and displacement, time and space creates stretches,
moments, eternity, fragments, and groups. This shore and the other are just fragments
from it. Emotional fluctuation may be triggered by certain “events,” or may be based on
an unexpected contact of “matter” and “scene” before us. The script is moving because of
its joys and sorrows, partings and reunions. Life is more interesting due to its ups and
downs and unpredictability.
Among matters that resemble impromptu performances by actors, flower branches are the
most ambiguous, symbolizing fragments of nature and dismemberment of the body in
representation of youth, abundance, and beauty, yet fleeting. Acts of collecting,
setting, immersing, or preserving in glass jars symbolize Lin’s ritualistic
commemoration of wandering between the two ends of death and temporary persistence,
similar to negatives or paper manuscripts. In the background, drama is gradually
purified, simplified, abstracted, becoming a silent field. Such changes are not so much
a natural effect caused by the projection of internal and external light, but more from
the psychology of the artist’s different emotional connections to flowers. This
background, either dark or bright, facing the light or backlit, looking up or down,
highlights a lament that “time is fleeting,” or youth passes swiftly. Here, both time
and space are packed into a critical state, continuously bloating and waiting for the
moment of collapse.
There is a sensual atmosphere governed by both vision and smell in the air, wandering in
a surreal state where the virtual and real interchange, entity and imagination coexist,
forming an epigraph to be read and chanted, word by word. The vibrancy of blooming
branches represent an existing reality of “hence,” boisterous as if nothing has
happened, fallen leaves and pistils symbolizing the arrival of the “unknown,” as quiet
as a world away. Although these objects are still life, they are not static but moving,
following the path of light, accumulating senescence in time, releasing decadent roots
and leaves in space, embodying the principle of life’s cycle. Intertwined in surreal
enchantment, from fragments to whole, then whole to fragments again, assembling and
dispersing, parting and reuniting is consolidated in an alternate cycle of “as if”
and “as if to forget,” difficult to tell apart.
Lin Hao-Bai’s creative pace has followed light for nearly ten years, gradually shifting
from indoor flowers to outdoor scenes, and from outdoor scenes returning to potted
plants. He has been continuously calibrating, exchanging different energies and
knowledge, across time zones and continents, forming an impromptu adventure with a
rhythm of life. It is conceivable that as the artist’s sight lines transform through
gaze, a dramatic turning point of field and boundary is produced. Here, individual
expressions and collective stances of the same or different plants and flowers, or
unique or common characteristics of hometowns or foreign architectural sites are clearly
visible, as if the director knows everything about his actors. Concurrently, one can
replace roles, change scenes, and modify the script. Landscape, for Lin, is also a
script with both surreal and monumental significance.
Since 2017, the emergence of the urban series represents the expansion of his research
on indoor light and shadow. Travel is the link between these two ends of his changing
themes. Traveling, especially foreign travel, prompted him to transcend the visual
experience he was accustomed to in the past, and reactivate a blunted sensibility by
these unfamiliar places. “Wandering in a strange city with my sight and perspective,
observing the appearance of the city,” (Ibid.) and finding a balance between “hence” and
“unknown.” The initial attempt can be seen in the original Beyond: the orchids in front
of the window are almost hidden in the subdued interior, while colossal window frames
and a boisterous, grimy urban landscape lay outside the window. This seemingly plausible
but strange scene highlights an inner conflict between howl and calm, gaze and
association when crossing the border.
Interestingly, the objects in these compositions derive from buildings and streets from
different countries, eras, and styles. They are not reproductions of an original scene
in sketches, but the result of grafting. They are all just actors on a “marginal” stage,
each taking on different potential roles of dialogue, confrontation, transcendence,
withdrawal, speaking their own words in unfamiliar lines, like a script that can be
adjusted at any time during rehearsal. It can also be said that this is the result of
impromptu writing by the artist from the perspective and identity of a director, like
the surreal scenes in the flower series, only that the background changes from two
dimensional space to three dimensional space. It is worth noting that the transformation
of spatial depth represents an inversion of the artist in terms of position of matter
and scene. In other words, the “absent” outdoor scene behind the artist is now a
protagonist of “presence” in the composition. While the original light or shadow on the
wall can no longer just project upon flower vases and jars, it is now a compass of
spatial penetration, geographical location, guiding the artist on physical and mental
adventures.
From the original Beyond to urban themes of the same series, Lin’s work begins to
generate immense displacement from matter to scene, inside to outside. A partial
revision of the original Beyond (abbreviated as adaption), eliminates flowers and
replaces its window frames to show a continuation of this form of scripted
improvisation. Read carefully, the window frame is precise and tidy, and the space
occupied by the window is evenly divided into three parts. The wall below the picture is
left blank, suggesting the height, position, and distance of the artist, creating a kind
of “real” that seems alludes to “presence.” However, compared to earlier original works,
we know that the artist created a “scene” that can better legitimize the unfamiliar
landscape through repeated use of original portraits or images, reducing prior
violations and conflicts, and achieving some degree of harmony and comfort.
The domed church at the top of the window and various buildings nearby, or even its
mirage of skyscrapers in the farthest distance, are integrated with different
combinations, angles, expressions of light and shadow. In other words, from the original
to the adaption, adjustments and reconstructions can be made according to the artist’s
understanding of structure, space, light, shadow, matter, color, temperature, seasons,
and even the existence and disappearance of personal memories, akin to an adaptation of
a play or music form, an ideal landscape can be continuously changed, added or
eliminated. These two works combine travel memories and urban imagery, accumulated from
different time-space experiences and environmental elements, and at the same time,
promote the seemingly real or “realistic” landscape into a simulated “scene” with
different expressions and postures, wandering between unshackled, assorted axes of time
and space.
Additionally, the method of looking or gazing at the outdoors through the window is like
a traveler using a telescope to look at distant scenery. It has a certain barrier
limited by space or place, perhaps because resolving an unfamiliar confrontation, and
looking for an indirect or redressed dialogue, is a necessary separation. That is to
say, before hitting the ground, the eyes see everything in the unfamiliar city more
effectively and extensively. Those who are close, see reality, those who are far, see
the image. Roaming through the window of the eyes, whether near or far, its autofocus
acts like a camera lens conducting a safety test of a relatively foreign state for this
stranger, and looks directly at it without interference, easing this kind of visual
exploration.
With the gradual expansion of displacement, it becomes necessary to go outside and
re-measure the city with the pace and steps of passers-by. When people walk on the
streets and among buildings, surrounded by giant objects, the insignificance of the body
arises spontaneously. Human beings become points and fragments in the landscape, just
like passing trees, street lamps, doors, windows, fences, bridge piers...Each acting a
certain chapter of this play. Displacement not only represents space, but can also be
reflected in the order of time. When night falls, travelers who continue to explore
strange cities experience a different face in the dark, like nocturnal animals. When
vision is unclear, they must enlarge their pupils in the dark, allowing light to become
a guide again, redefining levels of brightness and darkness.
There is an ever-changing expression, whether indoor or outdoor, light and shadow, with
time, seasons, dawn or dusk. After transformations of space, geography, and location, an
accumulation of thousands of folds. Light travels, that is, where light reaches/in
absence and presence, as well as its projection and reflection on various objects,
traveling through day and night, cities and suburbs, forming a colossal energy that is
ubiquitous and intangible, guiding the roaming traveler in the state of time and space
without coordinates, so he does not get lost. The objects and matter experienced in
these travels are “absent” of figures. His landscapes become an “empty city,” widening
the distance between self and others, akin to an ideal state after removing landscape,
race, culture, or ideology, becoming not so much a travel landscape, but closer to
meditation, interwoven subjects, and sensory adventures of foreign lands.
Regardless of flowers or landscape, resituating the outdoors or empty cities do not mean
the “absence” of others, but the manifestation of change in light and shadow as an
internal and external communication. For more than ten years, Lin has followed the
progress of light and the reflection-direction of shadows, and has given an emotional
belonging to binaries such as matter and scene, shape and field, through improvisation
(that is, free performance). Like his statement, “I am the director of the work,” the
gaze formed by integrating various senses or perceptions, fragments and clips gathered
and combined in different time-space transforms into true-to-life drawings, a touching
script or a song of life. Each occupies its place, exhibiting its gift. However, the
pandemic of these last two years have restricted this kind of displacement again, and
the “Splendid Light” series was thus born out of chance.
With or without an outdoor background, light and shadow is a guide. Indoor and outdoor,
light and shadow changes its intensity and brightness according to the needs of the lens
or scene. Backlit is a focus on the flexibility and coexistence of real scenes or
illusions. Backlit expressions demonstrate an ambiguous interlacing of interior and
exterior light, that is, after exterior light is cast into the interior to reflect
objects, and then reflect back objects, forming intricate changes in light and shadows.
Unlike the first stage, it is more delicate and changeable in gray scale, dark in the
front and bright in the back, reversing the habitual visual inertia, and entering a
state of roaming light and shadow. Here, matter highlights more expressions and
textures, and point of view wanders among various levels of brightness. This
metamorphosis also announces the latest exploration of Lin Hao-Bai’s journey with light,
not only crossing barriers of various time-space but forges an absolute freedom of
impromptu writing in the kingdom of light and shadow.