Madam Liu, Liang Ling-Fang is my grandmother. She had passed away. She loved Chinese ink painting all through her lives especially ink bamboo. When I was a child there was a room specifically for my grandmother to work on her Chinese ink painting. I used to stay in the room for the whole afternoon. However, there was a time I hated ink painting so much when I was in high school. Compared to my favorite western paintings printed on books such as Modern Art in Europe and America, ink painting with only black and grey tone had merely become necessary practice to attain good grades in practical evaluation for universities admission. I was asked to copy the ink painting of famous artists by teachers in school. I couldn’t find a bit of interest in ink painting under such learning environment. What I didn’t understand was every time I got home, I saw my grandmother concentrated seriously on copying the bamboo ink painting of her teacher. Copying works of the masters was boring for me but for her, there was lots of joy in every touch on the ink and brush.
My grandmother left some of the ink painting catalogues that she had been copying and lots of her copied bamboo ink painting after she passed away. In summer 2013, when I was preparing to do an art residency in Paris for half year, I took some of her catalogues and paintings with me. Surprisingly, I realized there was many pencil sketches on the inner pages of those catalogues. Only then I remembered the one who wanted to have a conversation with the bamboo ink paintings was me, who was only five year old. During the residency, I started to sketch in the ink painting catalogues I brought along. The layers of my sketches and the darkness, lightness, thickness and paleness of the ink merged into each other. The non-stop process of one single bamboo ink painting although is different from quick and random sketches, but both also shares similar spirit. And this process triggered the idea to establish a dialogue with my grandmother’s paintings. The geometrical aspects of the sketches created an interesting scene when combined with the original bamboo ink painting. Something that is abstract and concrete, intermingling both realism and metaphorical imageries. The two different and seemingly separated painting skills and mediums come together naturally. My misunderstood towards ink painting gradually disappear and what emerged was the happiness and joy after the conversation through painting with my grandmother. As if I started to share the same feelings when my grandmother was sitting in front of the desk before she started to paint. I started to feel her limitations and difficulties as well as the joy when discovered the surprise outcome brought by the flowing of water and ink.
Mia Wen-Hsuan Liu Now work and live in Taipei, Taiwan
Solo Exhibitions 2013 The Black Reading Room, Eslite Art Studio, Taipei, Taiwan 2012 Invisible Light, Accton Art Space, Hsinchu, Taiwan 2011 I can't tell you, but you feel it, IT Park Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan 2009 The Third Side of Paper, SuHo Paper Museum, Taipei, Taiwan 2006 We are not recyclable, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, United States Selected Exhibitions 2014 Body/Narraor, Silverlens Gallery, Manila Art Stage Singapore 2014, Marina Bay Sands Expo, Singapore 2013 With my <>, trade your <>, Taipei Artist Village, Taipei, Taiwan CODA Paper Art 2013, CODA Museum, Apeldoorn, Holland Gazing into freedom: Taiwan Contemporary Art Exhibition, Vojvodina Contemporary Art Museum, Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia Art Taipei 2013, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei, Taiwan A Contemporary Art Exhibition Across the Strait, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts/National Art Museum of China, Taichung/Beijing, Taiwan/China Here!, FreeS Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan Collection of Taiwanese Emerging Artist, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan 2012 Inside, Jendela Art Space, Singapore Polyphony Beat, Kalos Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan 2011 Artists at Glenfiddich, Glenfiddich Distillery Gallery, Dufftown Art Osaka 2011, Hotel Granvia Osaka, Osaka, Japan Young Art Taipei 2011, Taipei, Taiwan Tokyo Frontline Art Fair, 331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan 2010 Taiwan Calling: Phantom of Liberty / No Man's Land, MűcsarnokK / Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary Variations of Geometric Abstraction in Taiwan's Contemporary Art, Eslite Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan Key Words 2010, Juming Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan Drawing Out Conversations: Taipei Setting Up, Nan Hai Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan Young Art Taipei 2010, Taipei, Taiwan Contemporary airy craft from Japan and Taiwan Part. 2, Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan 2009 Viewpoints and Viewing Points: Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan Comedies, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan Art Taipei 2009, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei, Taiwan Kaohsiung Awards 2009, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2007 Ourselves & Each Other, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, United States 2006 The World Domination of Painting and Drawing, Ego Park Gallery, Oakland, United States ART(212) Contemporary Art Fair, New York, United States Shifting Landscapes: A Topographical Study, Aftermodern Contemporary Fine Art, San Francisco, United States Artist Residencies 2013 Artist in Residence at Cité Internationale Des Arts, Paris, France 2012 Artist in Residence at National Taiwan University of Arts, Taipei, Taiwan 2011 Artist in Residence, Glenfiddich Distillery, Dufftown, UK 2009 Banqiao 435 International Artist Village, Taipei, Taiwan Awards 2010 National Culture and Arts Foundation 99-2 Artist Grant, Taiwan 2009 Taipei Culture Foundation 98-3 Exhibition Grant, Taiwan 2009 Selected artists for Art Taipei 2009 Made in Taiwan Sponsored by The Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan 2009 First Prize, Kaohsiung Award 2009, Taiwan 2009 Geisai 12 Sponsorship, FuBon Art Foundation, Taiwan 2008 National Culture and Arts Foundation Artist Grant, Taiwan Collected 2012 Lighting Dust III, Kalos Gallery, Taiwan 2011 I Can’t Stop Rolling, Fubon Financial Holding Co., Taiwan 2010 In Her Dreams, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan 2010 Roll it Up!, Private Collection 2009 I am Mia Liu, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan
This exhibition presents the conversations I had in the bamboo forest with my grandmother during the rainy early summer of 2014, through ink paintings left over thirty years ago.
by Mia Wen-Hsuan Liu