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Indistinctive Landscape

2019.4.13 - 5.19

Hu Shu

D06，Middle Second Street, 798 Art District, No.2 Jiuxianqiao Rd, Beijing

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Tong Gallery+Projects is very happy to announce that Hu Shu's solo exhibition "Undifferentiated Landscape" will open on April 13, 2019. This exhibition will present two series of paintings by the artist "Undifferentiated Landscape" and "Pure Form of Feeling", which will last until May 19, 2019.

The series of "Undifferentiated Landscape" comes from the suspicion of "reproduction". Painting always has to face the problem of reproduction, or consider whether reproduction is a problem. In an era when images are extremely easy to circulate and dominate vision, it is difficult to paint on real blank paper, because images dominate the creator's vision and mind long before they start painting. This way of reproduction is ubiquitous. The more accurately it is reproduced, the farther it is from vision and the closer it is to conveying information. Painting should enter a forest. In such a complex ecological environment as a forest, people's senses will become more focussed and more sensitive to any changes in the environment. Painting should cause changes in this sensory state and keep a distance from narration or rational thinking. So in this series, by showing the wilderness and trees, and most importantly, the unfinished sense they bring, you can experience the pure feeling in the absence of the emptiness, and recognise the direct and individual appearance of the world.

"The Pure Form of Feeling" undertakes a series of paintings on how to express pure feelings when painting refuses to reproduce. The operation mechanism of feeling is complex. It represents a lot of possibilities and randomness. Contrary to conscious understanding, feeling also has its own logic. The process of understanding a thing always goes from an uncertain state to a certain state, and there must be a sense of participation in this process. The feeling comes from the biological response of the brain nerves, which means that the brain is "measuring" external stimuli. The feeling of measuring intention is perception. Compared with that, the feeling is more vague. For example, when we don't have "moving thoughts", our senses and consciousness are free. External objects are both present and absent. When we call our own perception system (see it, touch it, smell it, etc.), it is equivalent to starting to measure, and their state is determined. The statement is indeed logical, but I don't agree, because even if the outside world is simulated by our brain, we have no way to compare it. This means of reproduction can indeed evoke all kinds of my feelings, especially the wise reproduction method can even summon those profound feelings that have been forgotten. But what if you start directly from the feeling and find a unique visual form for it? In the logic of reproduction, any object is a recognisable image, word or sentence. As long as the reproduced object is interpreted, the transmission of feeling is already biased towards understanding and interpretation. So this series is actually an attempt to find the pure form of feeling.

Text/Hu Shu