A Thousand Plateaus
By/ Zhao Tianrun
Philosopher Gilles Deleuze points out that chaos is not an absolute disorder, but a latent order that contains infinite potential. This potential is revealed through the process of becoming, which is inherently a dynamic practice that constantly breaks through limits and seeks new paths. In Zhu Xinyu's works, the generation of form and the openness of meaning coexist. The orderly structures and freely growing lines and colors intertwine, presenting the individual's struggle and creativity within predetermined rules. Through formal tension and ambiguity, Zhu illustrates how, in the contemporary context, individuals realize the potential for generation within constraints.
In the Balance series, the artist attempts to explore the issue of balance within the painting itself. Zhu believes that balance is not a state of absolute stillness but a continuous dynamic stability, an ongoing struggle between entropy and negentropy. Therefore, the creative process becomes a constant oscillation between chaos and order, disorder and structure. During this process, moments of distraction and careful adjustments alternately unfold. The deconstruction, interweaving, and fusion of geometric shapes become a form of movement towards stability, ultimately revealing vibrating figures on the canvas.
In the Landscape series, Zhu further explores the possibilities of chance and visual tension based on balance, attempting to tilt one side of the balance towards chaos. Both total order and total chaos are equally disorienting, and a moderate degree of blindness can bring vitality to reason. The reduction in scale liberates the hand, allowing continuous motion to precede visual judgment, with action occurring before consciousness. Thus, the process of painting is given more reservation, resulting in frozen moments of movement within a confined space, creating a visual landscape imbued with tension.
In the Stack series, the artist shifts the focus from private personal experience and intuitive painting to the relationship between the individual and the world. The abstract concept of "order" is materialized into logical formulas, preset programs, pre-fabricated tools, and mechanical repetition, serving as a metaphor for modern society and becoming a new starting point for painting. In this series, cold rational rules intertwine with inevitable errors. Through the random extension of coordinates, the layering of materials, and the spontaneity of the hand, reason is gradually softened and injected with new vitality. The system of order continuously alienates in its construction, undergoes transformation in its alienation, and generates through its transformation.
Zhu Xinyu values the interconnections between works more than the independent meanings of individual pieces. This interconnectedness does not manifest in blood resemblances in the formal aspects of the works, but rather in the logical continuity and progression of the artist's methods and creative approach. In the exhibition, the three abstract series, along with other site-specific artistic explorations, echo each other, constructing a diverse visual text that collectively speaks of the cyclical operation of chaos and order and the eternal process of generation it triggers. Regarding the significance of form, Zhu maintains an open attitude, as articulated in the theory of "becoming." Art is not merely about representing pre-existing images, but about the continuous change and "generation" process that reflects countless untold possibilities and potential paths for transformation (Deleuze, Difference and Repetition). In line with the artist's ongoing generative practice, viewers are invited to consider their act of viewing as the starting point for the generation of meaning, to feel the seeds of order hidden within chaos, and to contemplate the potential for freedom within the constraints of both self and the external world.
