Through the process of repetitive work, one experiences the slowing of time, to the point that one achieves the mental state of a jade-polishing artisan from the Liangzhu culture. Shao Fan truly embodies this state in his painting process: a state that allows him to profoundly contemplate the relationships between form and line, between ink and color：
Does line follow form, or does form follow line? It’s impossible to know which comes first. Lines can cohere and lines can collide; it’s unknowable which is more important.
Shao Fan began his series “In the Name of the Rabbit” in early 2020. We can discern the rabbit image in these paintings, but upon close examination, its original significance seems to dissolve. As examination yields obfuscation, our separateness falls away, and “we” enter an alternative state of co-existence. When we further consider the artist’s focus on repetition, we see that the repetition takes place not only on each painting, but also amid the connections between paintings. The artworks in the series “In the Name of the Rabbit” gradually unfold, inducing us into a temporal garden. As we weave our way through this space, blurred semantics and indeterminate auras lead us to feelings of ethereal lightness and shelter.
In Shao Fan’s other recent works, this temporal volume and topography is expressed in further indescribable forms. Accumulated layers of ink neither affirm each other nor contrast with each other; instead, they blend together serendipitously, allowing the “time” to organically reveal itself in the gaps between brushstrokes. The artist commits himself to the guidance of uncontrollable forces, and we follow him along this winding path to secluded places, probing the possibilities of alternate dimensions. In this way, painting itself becomes the site of ineffable phenomena.
These creations of Shao Fan’s might be seen as “sites of communal contemplation” to which each individual can bring the perspective of their own lived experience. Unlike specific, historical places, these sites hold a void at their center, a measure of distance, an instant of original perception, that invites each visitor to pause, recalling the poetry of Gary Snyder: “Up here / out back / drink deep / that black light.”
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Hualong Agriculture Grand View Garden, Panyu, Guangzhou
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