“At the end of 2020, I returned from Seoul to Guilin. Due to the pandemic, I was quarantined in a hotel in Shenzhen for two weeks, during which I made some small acrylic paintings on paper. Working under limited conditions, I mixed paints directly on the surface of the work, using it as a palette. As a result, two things remained on the surface: the image I intended to paint, and the colours that would otherwise have stayed on the palette. Every colour thus appeared in duplicates.
This led me to consider reversing the process. If colours are mixed to create a painting, then painting itself can also become a way of mixing colours. In that sense, it becomes natural for the colour patches to remain on the surface and take part in the composition—the painting becomes a palette, where one paints on the palette itself. In the process of painting, the painted image and the color patches shape and complete each other, mutually causal, each with its own integrity.
This is not a new technique, but a way of presenting new relationships on the painted surface: the painted image and the paint that produces it together form a complete composition. These reflect my thoughts on “what to paint” and “how to paint“.
Why do I paint in this way? Because it makes me feel grounded.
What is painting? It is not about solving problems, but about holding myself accountable to time.”