Nan Ke Gallery is pleased to announce "The Sting of Time", a solo exhibition by represented artist Lvhan Zeng, from 6th January 2024 to 8th February 2024, at Lyceum Theatre, 3rd Floor, No.57, South Maoming Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai. The exhibition venue is supported by BACKSTAGE ART.
"Time" is an eternal proposition. However, the flow of time is not always smooth and seamless. Sometimes, it rolls through the body with fine thorns, leaving wounds that touch the nerves unnoticed. Lvhan Zeng's paintings use soft and subtle brushstrokes to carefully record and depict these traces: she depicts lonely, even painful memories, as well as the rainy warmth that pervades the desert-like urban forest.
Lvhan Zeng
Maiden, 2023
Oil on canvas
100h x 140w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
Artist Lvhan Zeng was born in a small town in southern China. The narrow, antiquated rooms, accompanied by a mingling of humid vapors, weave a visual lexicon reminiscent of a film from the end of the last century, forming the foundational elements of her aesthetics and creative endeavors. In her formative years, the intricate dynamics of her family environment led her to transient residences and a lack of a fixed abode. Consequently, she harbors conflicting emotions towards intimate relationships, a tapestry of yearning and resistance, akin to an intense and profound wrestling match.
Lvhan Zeng
Useless Days, 2023
Oil on canvas
150h x 150w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
In Tsai Ming-Liang's film Hole, the male and female protagonists find themselves isolated in an empty building in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a pandemic. Each occupies separate rooms, and their only means of communication is through an unintentional hole in the floor. The estrangement of their physical bodies, coupled with the gradually approaching intimacy of their spirits, dramatically portrays the dimensions of closeness and distance, mirroring the thematic exploration of emotions in the works of Lvhan.
In the piece "Share", time is materialized as a clock, and, akin to a pizza, it is segmented. For her, the aspiration is not for an all-encompassing intimate relationship. Intimacy, for her, is akin to sharing a pizza — being able to allocate a portion of her own time, much like sharing a slice of the food, with the other person.
Lvhan Zeng
Share, 2023
Oil on canvas
120h x 150w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
The connection between time and emotions has always been delicately intertwined. In the words of Stefan Zweig, love is akin to a pocket watch. "This spring patiently counts your hours in the dark, calculates your time, and with its inaudible heartbeat, accompanies you as you rush about, while in its incessant ticking of several million seconds, you only glance at it in haste once." This sentiment aligns seamlessly with the creations of Lvhan Zeng. She hopes her artworks can be like a clock, circulating to different places and in front of different people; providing anonymous closeness and blurry companionship to each other.
Lvhan Zeng
Unnoticed Choice, 2023
Oil on canvas
90h x 160w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
In the artworks of Lvhan, there is no lack of depictions of everyday objects. She expresses her emotional attitudes through the metaphor of objects. In "Waiting to be Used", she portrays a brand-new box of soap. In her eyes, the soap is like herself, waiting to be consumed to serve others. The prolonged lack of intimacy in her relationships led her to habitually assign herself the role of sacrifice, even self-destruction. The repeated quests for connection, marked by failures and injuries, inevitably leave profound imprints on her heart.
Lvhan Zeng
Waiting to be Used, 2022
Oil on canvas
150h x 150w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
However, her yearning for "closeness" is positive and aspirational. It's like the fervent desire of someone traversing a desert for an oasis, a belief-like longing. In the subsequent artwork, "To Be with You," Lvhan's understanding of intimacy and devotion continues. Ice, like soap, needs to erode itself to get closer to others. The difference lies in the shift from a singular act of sacrifice to mutual companionship in the content of the artwork. Amidst the backdrop of melancholy and alienation, a gradually diffusing warmth, akin to the melting of ice, begins to flow.
Lvhan Zeng
To Be with You, 2023
Oil on canvas
120h x 160w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
If the artist's attitude toward intimate relationships is contradictory, the same can be said for her attitude toward loneliness. Loneliness, on one hand, is a bone-deep consumption and torment, while on the other hand, it is an addictive mental paradise. In Lvhan's portrayal, loneliness often appears not laden with any specific emotion but merely as a form of existence. Whether it's scattered high heels, an empty refrigerator, or the end of a corridor with a solitary silhouette, it seems that through delicate and hazy brushstrokes, and unique artistic language, she captures the essence of "loneliness" as a philosophical concept.
Lvhan Zeng
Betrayal, 2022
Oil on canvas
60h x 50w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
This straightforward expression unfolds, allowing people to refrain from associating it with adjectives like "lonely" or "sad" Instead, it invites the realization that "loneliness" is a perpetual state, a statement of the fact that our bodies exist entirely independently in the world. Lvhan's artworks take us back to earnestly observe each object, to comprehend the primordial aspects of the world, the desolate atmosphere, and the vast expanse of cool colors. Everyone wanders aimlessly, without exchanging greetings.
Lvhan Zeng
Shape of Love, 2023
Oil on canvas
150h x 210w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
But in Lvhan's writing, loneliness is not a coldness that cannot be dissipated. Instead, it is a build-up of strength before intimacy or an interspersed spice. Loneliness and isolation are the present states of affairs, and the desire for closeness and connection is thus evident, infusing a warm flavor into the coldness of the austere. In the painting "Shape of Love", the flying white fabric still has a cold and clear color, but the dynamics of being lifted by the warm wind and running towards springtime is the artist's best depiction and illustration of what she recognizes as "love".
Lvhan Zeng
Film Book, 2023
Oil on canvas
120h x 160w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
In the process of both creating art and living life, Lvhan has gradually opened herself up to seek the roots of her pain and find ways to resolve or escape from it. In the past, she used painting to concretely document her suffering, aiming to archive the wounds as evidence of the hardships endured. In this way, she comforted herself, using self-witnessing to emulate the pursuit of justice. However, now she is attempting to broaden her perception of self, both in scope and approach. She endeavors to draw inspiration from the minutiae of life, subtle emotions, and connections with others, treating the canvas as a "frame" in a movie, capturing and freezing what the cinematic eye observes.
Lvhan Zeng
Dating, 2023
Oil on wood panel
60h x 60w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
Lvhan's artworks vary greatly in size. Some are intensely private, requiring proximity for appreciation, while others are large, immersive scenes. Regardless of size, Lvhan's delicate perception and expression make her paintings appear shrouded in a dreamlike veil. She uses brushstrokes to create texture on the canvas, distancing the viewer from reality and immersing them in another space that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Each image is also like a "thorn" stuck in linear time, showing not a grand and absolute narrative, but a momentary and constant sentiment captured by the artist.
Text by Roxane Fu
