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Mediha Kuan Ching Ting
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‘The word Hua means to paint, or a painting, in Chinese.’ Recently established in 2011, Hua Gallery specialises in the exciting and sometimes controversial space that is Chinese contemporary art. As Chinese contemporary art continues to fascinate and intrigue collectors around the world, demand and appetite for fresh and innovative art from this fast-‐changing region continues to escalate. Not only does Hua Gallery strive to introduce to the international art scene new and stimulating contemporary works by emerging Chinese artists, the gallery also represents and deals in the creative talent produced by a growing group of Chinese artists, who are establishing themselves locally, but not as yet “discovered” overseas. Hua Gallery adopts a distinctive business strategy by acquiring works from artists before selling them, as well as by exhibiting and selling works by artists on a commissions basis -‐ an approach which demonstrates a passion, dedication and commitment to the artists and also, importantly, provides confidence to art collectors who trust the gallery to help expand their collections. Hua Gallery’s founder and managing director, Ms. Shanyan Fok, has developed strong relationships with her artists, and hopes to build a Chinese contemporary art collection in her gallery that is different and inspirational. Every artist represented by Hua Gallery is chosen for their artistic individuality, the creative symbolism in their work, and the emotional energy their work creates. Hua Gallery is situated on the Albion Riverside, a prestigious residential block on the Battersea riverside, designed by world-‐renowned architects Foster and Partners. With close to 2,000 square feet of gallery space, Hua Gallery is London’s only Chinese contemporary art gallery with a permanent exhibition space of this size and scale.
Shanyan Fok, Founder
I am delighted to present works by Chinese contemporary artist Mediha Kuan Ching Ting.
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Mediha Kuan Ching Ting Mediha Kuan Ching Ting uses images boldly and vivaciously to search for an identity, stretch across cultural boundaries, and express memories and emotions. Ting’s paintings create an overpowering sense of the sublime. The paintings investigate dualities such as consumerism and spirituality, earthly attachment and enlightenment, pop culture and tradition, and multiculturalism. These dualities are emphasized on the surface of the painting and within the context of the image, which is often fragmented, manipulated, reconnected and layered. With a background from China and Taiwan, and having experienced life in Belgium, North America and now London, Ting’s diverse cultural heritage reveals itself in her work with the use of ink and Chinese calligraphy, combined with Western motifs referencing and in turn expressing a visual and personal tension. The conscious and sub-‐conscious are simultaneously hidden and revealed by layers of images and text, whilst the intense colour palette, drawn from urban nightscapes, hint at a darker consciousness. Pockets of colour illuminate the vast canvases, whilst thick, spiralling lines and layers tug the viewer’s eye across borders and axes, propelling him/her into a frenzy of ocular consumption. Counterbalancing fear and chaos with beauty and awe, Ting bestows her works with enigmatic titles – at once associative and highly personal – in order to take the viewer to the ‘tip of consciousness’, and ensure an experience which is truly sublime. Antevasin: ‘One who lives at the border’ is an exhibition that adopts intense and fluorescent colours, encompasses political elements, current affairs, pop culture and religious undertones. The paintings boldly create strong visions to capture the everyday mundane, representing the conscious and sub-‐conscious experiences of an urban nomad such as Kuan Ching Mediha Ting.
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BIOGRAPHY
Education
Birkbeck College, MA Arts Policy and Management (London) October 2001 to September 2003
Byam Shaw School of Art, BA (Hons) Fine Arts (London) October 1998 to May 2000 California College of Arts and Crafts, BA Fine Arts degree course (USA)
Solo Exhibitions
Art with a View, The View marketing suite, Taylor Place, Bow., May 2011 – September 2011
The Tip of Consciousness., Philia Home lounge group, Central, Hong Kong, March 2010 – August 2011
Polarize Self., Philia Home lounge group, Central, Hong Kong, August-‐ October 2009 Mediha Ting2009., by Asia Fine Art, APG pension group, Central, HK August—October
2009 The Realm of Perception 2009, , Stir Art Gallery, Shanghai, June – July 2009 First Step exhibition.,, Chinese Art Centre, Manchester – July 2008 – October 2008 Modern Noman, Asia Fine Art Gallery, Hong Kong Apr – May 2008 Mediha Ting 2008 Solo exhibition – Modern Noman, Tainan Municipal Cultural Centre,
Taiwan –March to April 2008 Solo exhibition, Just Dessert Café-‐ (Piedmont, U.S.A)-‐ 1997
Selected Group Show
Parallax Art Fair., La Galleria, Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London July 2011 Bow Arts Trust Open Studios (London) – June 2011 Contemporary Art Auction., Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, Dec 2010 A Big Vibe Affair-‐Art Exhibition., The Big Vibe gallery, London, Nov 2010 Bow Arts Trust Open Studios (London) – June 2010 Agency’ with Norn projects, The Pigeon Wing., Agency gallery, London, April -‐May 2010 Li KaiLin Contemporary Fine Art gallery, (Prestbury, UK) – March 2010 Art/Value/Currency., The Pigeon Wing Gallery, London, November 2009 Pushing Print Open Exhibition., Ingoldsby Gallery, The Pie Factory, Margate, Kent,
October 2009 Buy Art Fair., with LiKai Lin Fine Art Gallery, Urbis, Manchester, September 2009
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Asian Contempoary., by Asia Fine Art, The Rotunda, Exchange Square, Central, HK Aug2009
ScopeBasel 09 – Art Asia Pavillion, Li KaiLin Contemporary Fine Art gallery, -‐-‐ June 2009 Bow Arts Trust Open Studios (London) – June 2009 Moving -‐ 18 Contemporary Chinese artists, Li KaiLin gallery, (Prestbury, UK) – May 2009 City, Tsinghua Academy, Beijing – March 2009 Being, Stir Art Gallery, Shanghai – September 2008 to October 2008 GO Hong Kong!!!, Ora Ora Gallery, Hong Kong – August 2008 – September 2008 Bow Arts Trust Open Studios (London) – June 2008 Multicomplexificationlities by Roy Exley, Nunnery Gallery, (London), June 2007 –July
2007. Bow Arts Trust Open Studios (London) – June 2007 Woman Artist Contemporary Art by Asia Fine Art Gallery, Lee Gardens, (H.K), May 2007 Bow Arts Trust Open Studios (London) – June 2005 Sweet and Sour venue 2004, 291 Gallery (London) -‐ 2004
Book launch exhibition, Poetry project with Sandra, ‘Star child the collection’ by Sandra
Summer Open Exhibition, Brent Artists Register, Willesden Green (London) -‐2002-‐ 2003
“Urban Tension”, Brent Artists Register, Willesden Green Library Centre. (London) -‐ 2001
BA (Hons) Fine Arts degree show, Byam Shaw School of Art. (London) -‐ 2000
“In Defence of Painting”, Byam Shaw School of Art, Concourse gallery. (London) -‐ 2000
Third year and second year shows, Byam Shaw School of Art, Concourse gallery. -‐1998-‐1999
“Valentine Silence Auction”, San Jose Museum. (San Jose, U.S.A) -‐ 1996
All College Honours Award Exhibition, CCAC Oakland & San Francisco, U.S.A) -‐ 1995
Culture Mixed Exhibition, CCAC-‐Oakland campus. (Oakland, U.S.A) -‐ 1994
End of year exhibition, Suffolk College. (Ipswich, Suffolk) -‐ 1994
“New perspective”, Oldham Book Store. (Ipswich, Suffolk) -‐ 1993
“Summer of Hong Kong”, Great Exhibition Hall. (Centre, Hong Kong) – 1991
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Antevasin The Antevasin series consists of two large-‐scale paintings – ‘Vanishing Border’ and ‘Border Line’ – that together balance abstraction with figuration and combine accidental details with control, in order to create an overpowering sense of the sublime. The series investigates oppositional elements by juxtaposing consumerism with spirituality, earthly attachment with enlightenment and pop culture with tradition and multiculturalism. Images from different layers verge between the conscious and the sub-‐conscious, and serve to both construct and deconstruct the perception of our inherited cultural ideology. These multi-‐layered paintings are saturated with references and intriguing details, which combine to create an overall aesthetic of fragmentation. By encompassing political elements, current affairs, pop culture, and religion, these paintings create a strong vision, capturing the everyday – from the mundane, to the major historical moment. Over the years Ting has developed a technique that allows different images, marks and materials to intervene, and fragmentation and distortion to occur, while all the while ensuring that every layer remains visible to the viewer. Chance and accident play a key role in her work, as she toys with the unconscious and encourages seemingly unrelated images and contradicting themes to reconnect, clash and merge. The artist collects iconic images from newspapers, and translates them into drawings before transferring them onto the canvas. As such, familiar fairy tale characters and super heroes can be seen to act out familiar war scenes from current and historical moments. Over 100 figures lie dormant in each painting, including a man from the Vietnam War being executed with a gun to his head at point blank range. While the works are highly conceptual, they also yield strong emotion. In each painting, a layer of Chinese writing written with Chinese ink, has been super imposed onto the canvas, distorted by excessive dripping. The chosen writings have particular meaning to the artist as they are taken from articles written by her grandfather about different ways to live, and the end of world. The bold and intense fluorescent colours serve as an initial distraction, luring the viewers in, but on closer inspection, a darker consciousness can be seen to lie beneath; between the 30 layers of transparent overlap, a trove of images and hidden meanings – unique to each viewer – waits to be unearthed.
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01 Borderline (2011) 198cm by 354cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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02 Vanishing Line (2011) 198cm by 354cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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Icon-‐luminous The Icon-‐luminous series is highly charged with tension, ironic humour, sensuality, and ambiguity. The strong, fluorescent colours are sensual and contemporary, and serve to create an intense luminosity, which act as somatic stimuli; her palette is influenced by the luminous lights and neon signs of the city, as well as those found in space. Apart from continuing to investigate and render the battle between desire and guilt, this series investigates three main areas. Firstly, cyber subculture; the new formation of varying cyber texts, chat languages and slang. Secondly, the sequence seeks to explore the relationship between cultural values and the subconscious. Thirdly, the paintings try to capture the everyday, ranging from the mundane to the current global political, social and economic climate. The impetus to create the paintings came from a sense of linguistic estrangement felt by Ting every time she returned to Hong Kong. The artist felt as though she had to learn a new language every time she went back; there were so many new forms of slang and invented words and terms. Around the same time she was receiving a myriad of office and internet slang e-‐mails and noticed the power and potential this new cyber subculture had to create a new, unofficial language. Ting wanted to capture this interesting phenomenon, as well as the instability of the current global climate, and did so by setting up a contrast in her work between the humorous/ironic and a sense of angst typical of today’s world. The paintings are multi-‐layered and each contain a variety of shapes which have naturally emerged from the canvas and been subconsciously enhanced. A few layers of Chinese writing can be detected beneath the surface, each communicating intimate feelings and thoughts – some of regret and guilt – and these have been overlain with English quotes and extracts captured from the artist’s reading. The majority of these investigate the attainment of enlightenment and higher morality. Another layer of Acrylic colour spread brings out the light and dark in the paintings. Beneath this layer, a plethora of image transfers can be found which echo the kind of Hong Kong slang Ting was confronted with on a daily basis – humorous emoticons, ironic text language, chat language and other office abbreviations. Melancholy love songs, wedding vows, letters, notes, Chinese motifs and other collected patterns and neon signs fill the canvases as well. The text in these paintings is, however, the main focus. Continuing previous explorations into cultural identity and its conflicts, Ting was led to explore the philosophy and psychology of Sigmund Freud – in particular his research into dreams, the subconscious, duality and repression. In Icon-‐luminous Ting plays around with the subconscious – in shape, colour and form – and the result is a highly ambiguous sequence of imagery. * Selected to Parallax Art Fair., La Galleria, Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London July 2011
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03 Beaten Dog (Taiwanese Slang) with Blue Space (2010) 160cm by 80cm, Acrylic on Canvas
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04 Burning my Favourite In (Hong Kong Slang) (2010) 160cm by 80cm, Acrylic on Canvas
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05 Red Cloud with Pink Trinity (2010) 160cm by 80cm, Acrylic on Canvas
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06 Orange Land Green Void with Neon Sign (2010) 160cm by 80cm, Acrylic on Canvas
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07 Purple Shift and Digital Rose (Emoticon) (2010) 160cm by 80cm, Acrylic on Canvas
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08 Green Light and Aussie Kiss (Office Humour Slang) (2010) 160cm by 80cm, Acrylic on Canvas
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Confluence
The Confluence series consists of 11 paintings, which can be viewed individually or in pairs, with one painting on top of another, apart from ‘Through Space’, which is meant to be viewed on its own. This series was invented to strip away all of the layers, revealing the abstract structures and pure essence of the paintings themselves. The subconscious lead elements are particularly important in this series, and have been maximised through the use of various techniques, including Acrylic colour spread, Chinese ink spread, masking, glazing and layering. In each painting, the base layer is colour spread with special Acrylic medium to loosen the bond of the paint, and this works to achieve a watercolour aesthetic. Many layers of glazing have then been applied to enhance the colours’ vibrancy. On top of this, there is another layer of Chinese ink spread, which has been sealed off with acrylic medium. Whilst previous series are heavily layered, both visually and in terms of content, this series liberates the sub-‐conscious drive, and allows the process to be more dominant – lessening the deliberate construction of images by using various ink spread techniques, which allow a more organic emergence. The colours are inspired by the birth of the stars in space, and the black and white strokes on top are fragmented images of rubble from wars, symbolising destruction on earth. As a whole, these paintings explore the relationship between destruction and re-‐birth, and balance the figurative with the abstract through a distinctly minimal approach. Influenced by both Western visual arts movements, and traditional Chinese ink painting, Ting has endeavoured to capture the essence of the scene or emotion rather than the physical appearance or accurate likeness of a scene or object in itself. Here, she was intent on using approaches and concepts from Minimalism, Surrealism and Abstract expressionism. In these paintings she wanted to allow all influences – cultural as well as artistic – from the East and the West, to merge together smoothly, like the joining of two rivers; hence the title of the series: Confluences. * Three paintings from this series were selected for the cover of Risk magazine. ** The APG pension group in Hong Kong Central has recently exhibited 40 of Ting’s paintings in their Hong Kong office. *** This series was shown in a solo exhibition in Shanghai, at the Stir Art Gallery
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09 Through Space (2010) 40cm by 80cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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The Realm of Perception This series explores Ting’s interests in the perception of cultural identity, the relation between the inner and outer world, and states of consciousness and unconsciousness. The works focus on different aspects of duality; these are conveyed through a process of vigorous self-‐expression, in which the surfaces and images are fragmented in order to enable a reconnection. According to Ting, there is a side of her that likes to indulge in the act of overt confession typical of the Western world, and yet her Chinese upbringing reminds her of an inner impulse to shy away from revealing emotions that are hidden beneath layers of imageries and texts. The artist was in fact going through an emotionally difficult period in her life at the time of the paintings’ creation. She began to try to access her subconscious by looking for what she was perhaps suppressing or hiding. Then, in conversation with Grayson Perry, she heard him say that there are no lines or boundaries in his art; it led her to think about her own works -‐ particularly those in which there were certain things she didn’t want to show. This prompted her to consider the tension between the oppressed and the expressed, a dichotomy compatible with Freud’s idea of the constant fight between desire and guilt. Ting decided to create a series in which she would let go of her boundaries and reveal all that was hidden. She drove deep into her subconscious and let it all out, and then followed her impulses to conceal it all again. For the base layer, Ting used an ink transfer technique to transfer text drawn from letters, notes, confessions, other people’s secrets and her own darkest secrets, onto the canvas. She then overlapped this with different drawings depicting key moments in her friends’ and family’s lives; these stories had either shaped them personally, or referred to dark or painful incidents that had impacted them deeply. She then transferred these memories onto the canvas. The fluorescent colour of the series was inspired by the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. To enhance the colours she used many layers of glazing, and to create texture, she peeled paint off from other surfaces. She created a giant paper stencil, and used motifs and ancient patterns from both the West and the East, contrasting bold black and white images such as the ancient Chinese vase and the Roman statue from the same era. As such, the series seeks to combine ideas from Freudian theories on consciousness and unconsciousness, dream works, repressed memories and the constant battle between desire and guilt by using a psychological technique akin to automatic writing; Ting forced herself to write everything down that she associated with a memory. In this way, she hoped to access all of the hidden secrets of her subconscious, repressed self. The artist didn’t want to put forward a set of fixed ideas and so the series is ambiguous– she wished
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for viewers to draw from their own memories and find their own unique interpretation in the work. * Exhibited in 18 Chinese Contemporary at Li Kai Lin Gallery **Exhibited in Scope Basel Art Fair in Switzerland *** Exhibited in Buy Art Fair in Manchester
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10 Letting Go (2009) 80cm by 80cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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11 Holding On (2009) 80cm by 80cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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12 Red Dimension (2009) 80cm by 80cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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13 Midnight Mist (2009) 80cm by 80cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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14 Symmetry (2009) 80cm by 80cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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15 Darkness Gaze (2009) 80cm by 80cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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16 Combination of 6 Panels (2009)
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Tip of Consciousness This series of 24 paintings reacts to different exhibition spaces, in differing combinations. The extreme colours are drawn from urban nightscapes and are both bold and alluring. Several layers of different consciousness are embedded beneath the more playful and intriguing patterns made from giant stencils of hybrid motifs drawn from Chinese and Western culture. In these works, Ting has created a visual and conceptual tension that reaches deep between the layers. The Tip of Consciousness followed The Realm of Perception, and as a series, is much more playful and light hearted than the darker works produced before. It deals with similar themes – memory, dreams, the conscious and unconscious, East and West – but brings the tension between private and public spaces into focus. Here, Ting explores the construction of personal identity, national identity, and the identity of place. Ting was inspired to create the paintings following a chance discovery of a box of personal objects, which held no commercial value to the artist, but were full of high sentiment. She was led to think about how these objects locked into memories, and how they demonstrated who we are and what our relationship is with the world. Around the same time she was struck by how many public monuments there were around London and the strong sense of nationalism that this conveyed. She decided to create a series that contrasted the two, creating a dialogue, tension and paradox. She thus transferred black and white patterns created by human forms onto the bottom layer of the canvas, and depicted the individual as a large form, indicative of both individualism and nationalism. She then used the Surrealist practice of automatic writing to let text flow from her unconscious onto the upper layer of the canvas. Thus, we see a London nightscape, composed of several different images, and painted with intense colours which contrast with the black and white text and patterns beneath. On top of this, drawings of personal, sentimental objects and public monuments litter the canvas. The process has been repeated several times to create a fragmentary effect, in which images are lost and partly hidden. For the final layer, Ting used giant paper cut-‐outs as stencils to coat her canvases with cartoon-‐inspired shapes and silhouettes drawn from everyday experience. * Chinese art centre auction ** APG pension group 2010 Solo *** Pushing print **** Shanghai 2009 Solo
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17 Spiralling Red and Black (2009) 46cm by 46cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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18 Yellow Bodhisattva on Pink (2009) 46cm by 46cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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19 Little Prince’s Rose (2009) 46cm by 46cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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20 Flat Head Eric (2009) 46cm by 46cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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21 End (2009) 46cm by 46cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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22 Strange Creature that makes Strange Noise (2009)
46cm by 46cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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23 Orange China US (2009) 46cm by 46cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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24 Black Statue on Yellow (2009) 46cm by 46cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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25 Flat in Red (2009) 46cm by 46cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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26 Blue Virgin Mary (2009) 46cm by 46cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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27 Goldfish (2009) 46cm by 46cm, Acrylic and Chinese ink on Canvas
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Polarize Self Polarize Self series consists of two large paintings that act almost like self-‐portraits, separating out four aspects of the concept of self. At the time of their creation, the artist felt it was almost as though she had a dual personality, with certain beliefs and actions conflicting, and becoming a source of doubt. Self-‐criticism of Ting’s own actions and contradictions arose within this opposing self. She felt that perhaps the duality/split personalities -‐ the polarized selves – were created by the different cultural influences she was exposed to when growing up. Some influences are more obvious than others; the Chinese influence and more subtle American, British and Japanese Pop culture influences have all directly contributed to this split personality. Thus, there is the exterior self, which Ting constructs as her image – this refers to both self-‐perception and how she wants people to see her. Then there is the hidden self, which is more private and sometimes darker. These two forms of selfhood can at times be seen to merge, and at times be seen to fight against each other. The series was inspired by a television programme about Bipolar disorder and manic depression – a psychiatric diagnosis in which people go back and forth between periods of unusual elevation and deep dejection. Around the same time the artist was writing her CV and it struck her how little it showed of herself; it only showed a very small side in which a very impersonal, carefully constructed image of the self had been conveyed. All the other sides of Ting’s personality remained hidden. Thus she was led to explore the nature of the construction of identity, and the fight between selves. To a certain extent, she believed that everybody had Bipolar tendencies – not always so extreme – but evident in the daily mood swings most people are partial to. She therefore decided to create a self-‐portrait which reached beyond the exterior, revealing the hidden, personal self as well as that perceived from the outside. She hopes that everybody will be able to find traces of their own self within the portrait, as she sought to show the internal turmoil and angst experienced by individuals on a universal scale. The paintings continue Ting’s interest in psychology and the sociological side of identity construction, and explore notions of both cultural and national identity. They explore the tension between the many aspects of selfhood – personal identity and self-‐perception – through the lens of the bipolar, and reveal the various forms of truth and falsehood that often become entangled in one’s inner/outer projection of self. * Exhibited in Solo exhibition 2009 in Shanghai ** Exhibited in APG pension group Solo exhibition 2010 in Hong Kong
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28 Polarize Self Green (2009) 175cm by 145cm, Acrylic on Canvas
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