The Absurd Colourist

荒唐色師

Acrylic on paper, acrylic in plastic containers, mixed media installation

2013

 

 

In 2012 when journalists managed to reach Liu Xia, wife of the jailed Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, the poet-photographer-painter who had been under house arrest for more than 2 years cried, "This is too absurd.

I think Kafka could not have written anything more absurd and unbelievable than this."

When artists are denied of their right of communication and narration, what means could they deploy to express their dissent?  I decide to return to the beginning of a painter’s training – colour blending exercise.  Working with just the 3 primary colours plus black and white acrylic paints, I mix my own unique palette with these traditional paint names which most painters should be familiar with.  From a distance, the set might look like a usual set of colour standard cards.  Only when you read them you would start to realize the colours and the corresponding names are not matching.  To those who could decipher the logic behind the mismatch, we share a special language.

 

2012年記者突圍訪問遭軟禁兩年多的2010年諾貝爾和平獎得主劉曉波的妻子劉霞，這位詩人既攝影師既畫家哭嘆，「太荒謬了，我估計卡夫卡都寫不出這麼不着調、荒誕的事。」

當被剝奪了與人溝通和述事的自由，一個創作人還可以用怎樣的辭彙素材去創作，提出控訴和抗議？我由三原色加黑白塑彩料開始，自已調校一套獨特的色譜。驟眼看來普通的色標，細心閱讀便會發現顏色和名稱互不相配。