Artists: Xu Zhongmin - Kenji Yoshida - Tian Wei - Govinda Sah ‘Azad’

October Gallery presents Transvangarde: Luminous Matter, an exhibition that investigates the diverse outcomes of a meditative approach to artistic practice. Each of the artists presented was raised in the vitally different milieux of the near and far east. Each brings a fresh perspective to illuminate their experience of the world, as underpinned and enriched by the cultural and philosophical predispositions of places far beyond the western pale.

Central to this theme of interactive exchange between worlds are new works by the Chinese artist, Xu Zhongmin. When first shown at October Gallery in 1995, Xu was working with delicately laced wood-block prints, which, by the start of the new century, developed into large, incised, wooden panels. On returning to China his work progressed in novel directions, as evidenced by the intriguing orbs of his most recent Egg Series. These dynamic sculptures radiate with a bewitching luminescence that challenges the spectators’ understanding of what they are seeing. Yet despite this ingenious blending of illusion and reality, the profound themes of his earlier explorations shine through: the enigma of time and the eternal return; the endless recycling of life and death over generations; the mystery of the individual’s place both within and in opposition to surrounding humanity.

The ethereal paintings of Kenji Yoshida consist of gold, silver and precious metals on painted canvases that unite a restrained tradition of Japanese appliqué work with an abstract, modernist aesthetic. In 1964, Yoshida moved to Paris, the acknowledged centre of Modernism, bringing him into productive contact with the great artistic movements of the time. He was confronted by the shock of the Abstract Expressionists, Rothko and Motherwell in particular, who both employed similarly abstract forms in striving for that transcendent spirituality that sits at the centre of Yoshida’s sublime reflections on Life itself.

Govinda Sah ‘Azad’s paintings are informed by a combination of insights into his local environment and ongoing metaphysical musings about the nature of reality. Originally, in Kathmandu, Nepal, Sah had worked in a realist mode, before gradually moving towards abstraction while studying in London. His fascination with the indeterminate matter of clouds allowed him to meditate upon Nature’s more spiritual aspects. Following in Turner’s footsteps, he moved to Margate, where he says, ‘when I work outside, the changes in the colour qualities of the light are more profound.’ Composed of densely interwoven layers of mark- making, Sah’s canvases are created using oil and acrylic paints in what he describes as a ‘long unfolding conversation between artist and canvas.’

Renowned for his monochromatic canvases in striking colours, Tian Wei explores the plasticity of the written word and its associated fluidity of meaning. In Tian’s paintings definitive quotations cover the backdrop in minute scripts, forming a patterned ground on which larger semi-abstract cursive lines are daubed. Drawn in Chinese calligraphic style, these flowing shapes spell out simple English words, such as ‘gaze’ or ‘sexy’ that are difficult to decipher both for English and Chinese readers. This confusion arises because familiar things are rendered in unfamiliar ways, emphasising the false dichotomy existing between different world views or, alternatively, an emerging synergy of eastern and western sensibilities.

Jukhee Kwon creates works from abandoned and disused books. Meticulously slicing and cutting the pages by hand, Kwon creates intriguing ‘book sculptures.’ Each destroyed book is given new life and form in this re-creative process. More recently, Kwon has begun working with traditional Korean techniques of folding paper, (jong-i jeobgi) as in Endless, which emphasises the painstakingly precise, almost meditative concentration, required to fold pages taken from a dictionary into 1 cm square envelopes. Measuring exactly 1 metre square, the work contains 10,000 tiny packages filled with seeds. This again draws on the notion of recycling, whereby the paper made from cut down trees provides the substrate from which more seeds grow, closing and completing the cycle of life, death and rebirth.

Acutely aware of the rigour of a disciplined process, Golnaz Fathi is distinguished in being one of only a handful of women trained to the highest levels within the traditional school of Persian calligraphy. However, Fathi made the conscious decision to pursue a different career as a contemporary artist instead. Fathi’s astonishing combination of a traditionally trained refinement and an instinctively bold abstraction is exemplified in such recent works as, Sunset and No rain will put out this fire... which express on canvas emotions that go far beyond the realm of simple words.

Huang Xu focuses his attentive gaze on singular objects, sensitively staged to emphasise their ethereal inner beauty. The subtle effects of his photographs are produced using high resolution 3D scanners, before compressing the superabundant data down to produce images of haunting luminosity. Huang’s Flower Series depict otherworldly flowers, in exceptional detail. The luminous white petals in Flower No.2 (Chrysanthemum), seem to unfurl with hesitant sensitivity. Native to China, the chrysanthemum has been cultivated for over 3000 years, becoming freighted with symbolic associations in traditional Chinese poetry and painting. These layers of significance seem to radiate from within, as technological sophistication reveals the flower’s hidden essence as celebrated by generations of literati painters.