Ink Now 2019

A Song of Fire & Ice
– Liu Kuo-sung’s Water-Rubbing vs. Xue Song’s Burnt Collage

Painting with water and fire, in both historical and modern times, is a challenge in media. The founder of the Fifth’s Moon Painting Group, Liu Kuo-sung, who advocated “revolution against the brush,” began experimenting with the technique of “Water-Rubbing” since the 1970s. Liu’s pioneered technique involves dripping ink into water, then adding turpentine to manipulate the flow of the ink in the water, and finally placing paper onto the water’s surface to capture a “rubbing” of the ink’s pattern.

The origin of Xue Song’s brunt collage is quite dramatic. Having had two fires break out in his studio in the 90s, a distressed Xue found inspiration from ashes left by the destruction. The nature of fire is to consume and destroy, fueling both fear and a strange satisfaction. Xue’s burnt images are branded with a new visuality, and also given new meaning through rearrangement as collages pieces on the canvas. In turn, the process of destruction and reconstruction, and symbolic death and rebirth, creates a new artistic vocabulary.

Elaine Suyu Liu, Curator