POSSIBLE EXHIBITIONS

By Zian Chen

My friend Zhuang has dreamt of exhibitions. He then described it to me

originally in Chinese:
For several years, the painters relatives and friends have continually entered
her paintings. Of these oil paintings, her younger brother comes out
particularly well. He has cheeks the texture of well-brewed linseed oil, aptly
symbolizing the painters habits of mixing oils. Due to her generous use of
paint, the canvas supports a gentle surface tension; her brothers mesh-like
crew cut, like that of a soldier, shading the skin on the top of the head a faint
grey. Some may also find this texture similar to a cicada wings, blending
fittingly into the flesh tones of her portraits. At the opening of her solo
exhibition this year, her younger brother, appeared in the flesh. He, now
stands in front of me, seems to have lost weight. But I have no way of telling if
the image now held in my memory originates from her older paintings which I
know so well, or from occasional glimpses of his figure within a crowd at one
of her several past exhibition openings.
Browsing through new paintings of her younger brother, their impressions
would slide around, leaving me feeling even more unravelled. On this
occasion, a particular feeling gradually emerges about this younger brother,
this younger brother who I cant help but stare at, no matter how rudely. The
way he can so effortlessly stir up your attention is sufficient to know that in
your own eyes, this younger brother possesses much more than the ordinary
appearance of a flattering friend, (re-consulting your memory, the image of his
cheeks the texture of well-brewed linseed oil cant be wrong; but the cheeks
you see now before you, sallow and slightly pockmarked, are nonetheless
real.) So, his particular aura probably comes from the photographic qualities
of one of his sisters paintings. Its not difficult to imagine that an impression
which accumulates over several exhibitions will eventually ferment, by itself
creating the effect of tabloid papers, within a small circle.

Ever since the painters second year at college, when the first portrait she
hung gained the unanimous praise and respect of tutors in the college (it was
actually two portraits, one enclosed within the other, faint streaks of red on her
younger brothers cheeks, on either side of him in perfect symmetry the faint
feeling of sideways motion. The appearance of movement, yet also seeming
as if completely still.), her friends started to circulate portraits of her rosycheeked, still not twenty younger brother amongst themselves. These
biographical portraits would then constantly depict her brother, even without
written words. It easily commands the attention of its readers, who were like
otaku impatient for the next manga. It was probably due to this that her
younger brother, at every exhibition, would stand by the wall looking out at the
audience, as if long since accustomed to the gaze his painted-self receives.
Though this artist doesnt simply paint portraits, it ought to be said that images
of her family are but one motif constantly picked out from among a tapestry of
themes. The following observation may seem overly perspicacious, but,
regardless if an abstract work, or again a portrait, the texture of the painting
and the colour of the hairs on the brothers skin actually have several points of
confluence. I cant help but wonder if, ever since that image of her brother
surfaced in her mind, the smooth cheeks and crew-cut like cicada wings
opened to the artist a stylistic pathway of abundant riches?
Im possibly over-thinking this, though cant be sure: according to
psychoanalysis, the fact ought to be reversed: the skin-tone mixed from
cadmium red and flake white, is the artists own emphasis, enlightening the
hazy rose smears of her brothers adolescence. A follower of Lacan would say
something like this: given peoples envy of images, these partial objects which
they do not possess, are granted excessive recognition, allowing us to
genuinely adopt that appearance.
I continue to consider the binary, paradoxical relationship of the model /
painter so key to this study: from which point do they begin to produce
difference, and furthermore contextualise each other? Occasionally, intimate
relationships between actor and director can lead to creations which flit
between reality and fantasy: both movie directors Cai Mingliang and Abbas
Kiaroastami possess such intersubjective relationships with their actors. But

this person in front of me? With this feeling of intense familiarity yet cancelled
out by complete unfamiliarity, I move forwards, to talk to him.