The Artomity Magazine profiled artist Kurt Chan on his creative process, current experimentations, recent solo exhibition at gdm Hong Kong in 2023, and his insights into the development of the Hong Kong art scene.
In your most recent exhibition at Galerie du Monde in 2023, you projected moving images on your canvas. Was this also a way to reflect on the multilayered nature of reality?
It was a way for me to bring different elements together and explore their interconnectedness. The moving images are elements which help to strengthen the idea of the powerful, untamed nature that may not adequately manifest itself in my paintings, also acting to connect different ideas regarding my thoughts about landscape.
You might feel that all these experiments lead to a form confusion when it comes to defining my style. As a teacher, I had to teach things that I both liked and disliked. Over time, all these elements became a part of myself. Perhaps that is why I do not believe in a distinct style, as artists nowadays are living in a world flooded with information.
At the entrance of the exhibition, you displayed some ink on paper, followed by what could be conceived as an installation, comprising different sizes of paintings and sculptures. What guided your choices?
With this exhibition, my intention was to summarise what I have done so far and explore future directions. I wanted to investigate how to blend Chinese and western art, and whether there is a way to find a middle ground between the two. It was also an opportunity to delve into the exploration of different media and their unique characteristics. I guess I am returning to a more traditional practice and searching for the core of what I believe in. I ask myself the fundamental question: what shall I do as a painter? This choice may seem limited and perhaps old-fashioned compared to new technologies and knowledge-based practices, but I still hold on to that artistic myth that has been with us for thousands of years.
The title, Old Landscape: Lightning, Water and Rocks, refers to traditional Chinese landscape, yet I do not think your work follows that “old-fashioned” direction.
Indeed. I am not deeply connected to nature in the traditional sense, and I think I should find a new perspective to understand landscape, while I am still very much attached to the traditional ink painting tradition. My exposure to nature comes mostly through the internet and Netflix documentaries. I wanted to approach nature from a more scientific perspective, exploring how life is germinated on Earth. The famous Miller-Urey experiment [a 1952 experiment which showed that organic compounds could be synthesised from inorganic materials] shed light on the idea that the basic elements of rocks, trees and water in Chinese painting are comparable to elements they used in the laboratory to create amino acids. When I see the tree element as energy carrier, and when I translate it to lightning, everything in nature can be seen from a new perspective and even the old paintings by other painters make new sense to me.
Full interview --
https://artomity.art/2024/07/16/kurt-chan-%e9%99%b3%e8%82%b2%e5%bc%b7/
