Threads of Connection: Chi Qun, Dinh Q. Lê, Gu Benchi, Huang Rui, Jake Wong Man Kit and Zhang Xuerui

25 January 2024 Hong Kong – 10 Chancery Lane Gallery is proud to present a group exhibition entitled Threads of Connection featuring 6 artists whose works unveil hidden meanings and evoke the idea of exploring connections, uncovering hidden meanings and delving beneath the surface to discover the intricate relationships and symbolism with the exhibition’s content. The artists Chi Qun, Dinh Q. Lê, Gu Benchi, Huang Rui, Jake Wong Man Kit and Zhang Xuerui have practices that entwine the interconnectedness of ideas where disparate elements can be linked together by hidden meanings. Deeper meanings can be unravelled revealing layers of significance in the various works.

Chi Qun (b. 1981 in Shandong Province, China) graduated with both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mural Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Her many-layered paintings of oil on canvas, similar to engravings, result in a textural and seductive bas-relief of up to 8 layers of pigments. The scratches are meticulously worked creating a textile-like quality. Chi Qun explains "creation is also a way of thinking". She communicates with herself while creating, as to clarify and precipitate various emotions. She is deeply influenced by both traditional Chinese painting and western contemporary trends.

Gu Benchi (b. in Shanghai, 1979) was inspired by geometric abstraction in creating his woven threads of multi-layered configurations that embody balance, harmony, symmetry, perspective and light. His Buddhist practice brings a depth of meaning and searching to his works that are derived from the idea of the cyclical nature of the universe, having no definite beginning nor end. He describes his works as emanations from the tranquil inner self, like a calm and brilliant sea bathed in the morning sun. The layered material and vivid colors of Gu’s works invite the audience to enter the infinite universe. His works are inspired by the sacred geometry, which are visual representations of the underlying principles and universal truths found in the natural world, mathematics and spirituality. They aim to convey a sense of harmony balance, and interconnectedness between the physical and metaphysical realms. They have an energetic significance.

Huang Rui (b. in 1952 in Beijing) is one of China’s most highly regarded artists. Huang Rui has a long standing practice of using text in his paintings in what he terms Language-Color where he references the scholarly traditions and classical texts in a contemporary reconstruct of Chinese traditions. Language-Color explores the relationship between text and color through language and visual experience. Since the 1990s, Huang Rui’s textual paintings have explored the relationship between text and color, increasing the focus on the visual attributes in the experience of painting as a modern-day literati artist. He incorporates the main tenets of simplicity and minimalism, expressive brushwork, symbolism and metaphor to convey deep meaning. He uses empty and negative space, harmony and nature, allusion and poetry to convey a spiritual contemplation. In this exhibition, Huang Rui’s paintings “Four Purples”, he merges four classical texts with his feeling of the purple they describe for the viewer to resonate an emotional experience between the text and the color.

Vietnamese-American artist Dinh Q. Lê (b. 1968, Ha Thien, Vietnam) has developed a technique of weaving photographs to transforming images into a complex tapestry of storytelling. His works delve into themes based around the social and political impact of the Vietnam war and how it relates to contemporary society. His latest series of woven photographs entitled Khmer Reamker are powerful and complex tapestries that intertwine ancient and modern imageries of Cambodian histories. Lê made photos at the Royal Palace Museum in Phnom Penh of the fresco of the epic tale of the Ramayana known in Cambodia as Reamker, their national epic poem that explores the duality of good vs. evil. Woven between the mythological characters of monkey warriors and Gods is a black and white portrait taken at the Tuol Sleng S-21 prison by the Khmer Rouge. In an attempt to restore dignity to the victims, Dinh Q. Lê uses these juxtaposing images in honour of their life. Lê explains, “I have never been satisfied with the way these S21 portraits have been presented. Part of me hates that they are only being remembered as the victims of the Khmer Rouge at the last moment of their lives. This is going back to my relationship with the way the Vietnamese have also been represented during the war. We have been seen only through the war, as victims of war. By inserting the amazing and beautiful details of the Angkor Wat Temple complex, a rich and beautiful part of Cambodian culture along with the translation of India’s epic Ramayana into Cambodia’s important epic poem Reamker, these works explore the ideals of justice. And the importance of morality and virtue in daily life and society. I want us to truly see these people within these portraits as they exist in relation to their Cambodian culture. To me they became important witnesses of their own country’s best and worst.”

Jake Wong Man Kit (b. Hong Kong, 1995) is an abstract painter. His works convey his feeling of being disconnected and encompass the challenges that individuals face in effectively communicating their true emotions to others. It is a profound sense of isolation, as if standing on the edge of an abyss, where the depth of one's emotions seems impenetrable and unfathomable. In this state, there is a pervasive sense of separation, where one feels lost and adrift in a sea of miscommunication and misunderstanding. However, it is important to recognize that this experience is not uncommon. Many people have encountered moments when they felt their emotions were not truly understood or accurately conveyed. It is a universal struggle rooted in the complexities of human interaction.

Zhang Xuerui (b. Shanxi Province, China, 1979) paints abstract paintings of colour grids in subtle gradations that go beyond their visual appeal challenging the convention of realistic representation. A graduate of the architecture department of Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, Zhang is a master of constructing subliminal influences within interdependent modules. Within her works lie the blurred boundaries between fact and fiction embracing a dual construction of both the metaphysical and the concrete. This complex and meticulous system is constructed from complementary resonances between the part and the whole, universality and individuality, as well as the form and the idea. Prior to the first brushstroke, Zhang sets the fundamental tone of the canvas, and samples the temporal direction and degrees of the gradual process with smaller sketches. The piece originates with pre-set colours at three corners of the canvas. During the coherent, inter-locked coloring process, meticulous shading of tones, she progressively blends the lattices, evolving and congregating into a “spectrum” on the face of the blank canvas. A purely visual space, detached from specific, identifiable objects, is thus fostered.

 

 

ABOUT 10 CHANCERY LANE GALLERY
Established in 2001, when Hong Kong’s art scene was burgeoning, Katie de Tilly started 10 Chancery Lane Gallery. Along the back wall of the, then running, Victoria Prison, now the buzzing Tai Kwun Heritage and Cultural site, the little walking lane opened into a gallery specializing in contemporary art from the Asia-Pacific. Over the past 22 years, 10 Chancery Lane has worked with some of the region’s great artists, curators and museums. The gallery’s motto still stands: “We are committed to giving a breath of fresh air to the Hong Kong art scene by bringing works that can expand horizons, open minds and view the world, and life in general, through varying eyes, ideas and souls. Art is not just decoration for our walls but a connection with our deep inner selves and the world around us.”