For the Online Viewing Room of Art Basel HK 2021, TKG+ is pleased to present the exhibition “The Message Lingering In the Blank”, featuring new works by KONG Chun Hei (Hong Kong), TSAI Charwei (Taiwan) and Jane LEE (Singapore). Known for his paintings, installations, objects and video works, Kong’s artistic expression is linguistically sensitive and dialectical. His works possess the ability to regenerate in different aspects through the process of constant dismantlement and combination and emerge as a minimalistic manifestation. Through the technique of spatial ‘blank-leaving’ and composition, viewers are able to overpass the expression of forms to focus on the work as a whole. TSAI Charwei, whose artistic approach also tends to transcend the dimensional confines of media, has shifted her focus from understanding human conditions under different social situations to the sublimation of the spirituality of heart sutra in terms of the philosophy of life and death. Through the repeated copying of the scriptures, the blank space of the image becomes transformation of her spirit and comprehension. Jane Lee’s paintings are the process of layering, mixing, entangling, wrapping, kneading, and other transformations of the physical state of the medium. The entire coverage of the canvas, or rather the deliberate absence of any blank space, is a reflection on the pictorial space that the painting inhabits. A space that is not the simple binary identification of the presence or the absence but exists between the blank and the filled.
The concept of “leaving a blank space corresponding to the image” originated from the Chinese literati painting has transcended the dimensional confines of media from paintings to combine with various concepts. The integration resembles the reactionary rejection minimalists advocated towards abstract expressionism, which conceived the space for philosophical reflection created by the pursuit of meaning in works of art. It is an idea, an aesthetic and a statement. It allows the visual experience to crack open an exclusive and intimate space for internal dialogue between the work and the audience. In terms of painting, the blank space corresponds to the presence of the image, either as a complement to the image or as a caesura amidst the undulation of pictorial forms and colours that the image could not accommodate. In terms of installations, the correspondence between object and space, like a spatial painting, extends from within the work into the physical space, encompassing every physical body that walks through the exhibition. Whereas for the space itself, the blank space ties closely to the abstractification of modern art, symbolising the eradication of the context of reality and providing a neutral environment for viewers to contemplate.
“The blank” in such a way is not only a physical dimension or a metaphysical field of thoughts, but also a spiritual platform that comprises social and humanistic care. This space with the modernist spirit is getting closer to the development of contemporary art in the current context. Art also shifts from the inner part of the work to a more direct communication and contact with the society and the audience. The visual image of an artwork, whether it is a plane work, an installation or space itself, is the body that carries the message. The whispers hovering in this space are also spiritual messages conveyed to people via the works of art, and also reflect the expectation of life and the resistance to reality through art.
“The Message Lingering In The Blank" unfolds not only the artists' aesthetics and worldview. The "blank" employed is a message hovering that is indescribable. It stops the torrent of time passing unconsciously. Such blank is not empty. It is art’s most delicate and intimate whisper in the existing reality of resistance and oppression since the birth of abstract art.