Tay Bak Chiang, Ingenuity

I do not know the exact date that I've been to Mr. Tay Bak Chiang's exhibition, but the experience has certainly sparked me off in a new interest for rice paper. Titled Ingenuity, Tay's third solo exhibition showcases his Stone and Lotus series.
"Nature, through its many forms, served as Tay Bak Chiang's chief inspiration for his third solo exhibition. The artist's deep found awe in the harmony, balance and perfection in nature is made clear through these sumptuous Chinese ink paintings Both the Stone series and the Lotus Pond series in Ingenuity portray its subjects in their barest forms, with Tak Bak Chiang returning to the essence of his subjects by abandoned motifs that would bear his feelings, points of view and intentions. In doing so the viewer is invited to imagine and ultimately discover first-hand nature's ingenuity."
-- Singapore Art Gallery Guide

These are the works I saw in his exhibition:


云关 (2011)


夜猫子 (2011)


卧龙 (2011)


天工 (2011)


四又四分之一 (2011)


失神的片刻 (2011)


如意 (2011)


青涩的你 (2011)


奇白石 (2011)


红颜 (2011)


黑眉红杉 (2011)


藏巧于拙 (2011)


浮云 (2011)

Taken from: http://chanhampegalleries.com/exhibitions.html?secid=2&catid=1&task=fullview&id=53

It is through Tay's exhibition where I started to see rice paper in a different light. Previously, for me, I commonly associated them to typical Chinese calligraphy- landscapes and animals. Working primarily with Chinese ink and paper, Tay fuses traditional calligraphy with western elements, creatively presenting something simply unconventional. It is intriguing how it appears to be a flat two-dimensional print, yet it's canvas-- rice paper- seems like a real piece of cloth. Enhanced by the fallen bristles and texture of the rice paper, it appears seemingly fragile yet fascinating in it's strength to hold all those ink in it. I was entirely kept in awe over how Tay manages to make the entire space be filled with ink, without having those upsetting blotches caused by overlap of ink, using too much ink or just not painting swift enough before the ink absorbs into the rice paper.

And being a complete idiot at calligraphy, I consulted my friend who told me that in order to achieve a 均匀的 ink effect, he'd have to use a gigantic brush which would be able to cover the entire space he is seeking to fill. This certainly shocked me, and as expected, this needed a great deal of skill to have the command over the brush. So despite the simplicity of the work, hey, it's not that simple.

Tay's paintings have this seemingly innocent and child-like portrayal of things, yet one is able to see the professionalism and detailed-drivenness in Tay through the presence of his clean strokes and lines, and extraordinarily well-smoothed paint. Not only so, on close look, one would too be captivated by detailed, precise but wavering lines. How much skill it is for Tay to deliver such confident strokes which has nearly no room for error.

And if you realize, you'd see the interesting repetition of shapes in his paintings, making his paintings appear as a whole, giving it a sense of unity. Tay uses these bare existing lines as symbols and representations to objects he wishes to represent. However, Tay puts in this element of unknown where he does not dictate what he wants them to see his paintings as, but rather leaves them to do the decisions, thus it is this which makes his paintings so interesting. I particularly like the juxtaposition of the different shapes and sizes which displays Tay's playfulness and conscious attempt to create an intriguing image with much use of broad planes of colour. Tay's works reminded me of surrealism- bird with stone. By reducing the shapes to their bare essentials, he creates a completely clean picture.

At the same time, the broad planes of colour contrasts with the presence of the odd spaces of white (like small specks of 留白), presenting the piece seemingly infilled- reminding me of the spiritual work I wrote about in the Today article (check archives). Another reason I loved Tay's exhibition was the fact that i was simply overwhelmed by the broad colour planes in his work, such as the whites, black, and reds. Standing in front of his paintings seemingly engulfs the viewer into that space, keeping one's vision focused just on these colours, shapes and lines. It is this same effect which keeps me intrigued and excited to how he manages to do it, somehow.

And in conclusion, I really love his works. And I'm so going to learn calligraphy painting at the end of the year.

This is Tay's personal site: http://www.taybakchiang.sg/index.php

(The other works you see in his site is almost entirely different from the ones I've shown here)