“Light the first light of the evening, as in a room
In which we rest and, for small reason, think
The world imagined is the ultimate good.
This is, therefore the intensest rendezvous...”

- Wallace Stevens

In the poem “Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour” Wallace Stevens portrays such a scene for us: in a menacing night, two lovers light up the first light in the darkness in terms of their very meet based on love and imagination. In a broader context, we are drifting in the world, beguiled by the vision, and wrapped by the fate. Feebly, helplessly, and ineluctably. While desire, which fetters us in the numb world, sets us free from the same place. Tango, starting on an invitation from a glimpse on the dance floor, is an incident out of blue. Unsure of the other being unarmed, the two dancers’ encounter follows by tentative attempts and concealed intoxication in their interactions. The improvised footwork consists of getting closer, following up and of imitation and competing for the lead. Just like wrestling with desires in this floating and fleeting world.
From the forbidden fruit in the forest, the diamond ring on a lady’s finger, the crown adorned with jewels, the soliloquy under the spotlight, and staying true to rights and freedom in one’s own life experience and in others’ narrations.

This journey embarks on the state expressed by the works from Liu Zigsen and Wang Jinbo. In Terminal Forest – The Corner of the World and Terminal Forest – The Sub-lunary Sphere, the trees under Liu Zigsen’s arrangement appear through the irregular geometrical lines, by which the forest emanates mystery and enchantment. It allures the viewers to stay within it, and reforms the impression of forest in the viewers’ mind. The same effect can be also found in The Secret of Light, Dry Wild Fruit and Dew, Sunshine and Vanilla from Wang Jinbo. The yellow in the paintings functioning like spotlight tenderly introduces the viewers’ attention to the specific states in which the characters are, and keeps the eyes on them steadily.

Comparing with abstract concepts and reasons, the states based on perception are much better representatives of the essence of life experience. In Watching the Sea, the curtain is under the character. Contrasting with the external guide from the spotlight, the viewers’ attention is attracted by the force from within in this picture. The rolling waves with tiled grass are reflected by the mirror out of which the character is staring. The character, mirror, grass and waves jointly create a loop in this artwork: the character is observing the waves by virtue of the mirror, and the waves together with the grass set the ground of the character; moreover, this loop invites the viewers to join in. The visual experience of the viewers consists, instead of deductive reasoning aiming to another deeper level, of renovation on the perception triggered by the states conveyed in these works.

After the reformation of the viewers’ perception, the immediacy of desire is revealed by the object per se, through a group of works composed of Dress Up series from Wang Jinbo, Container series and Coronation series from Wang Dazhuo. The jewels and clothes implicate extravagant senses. They could signify wealth, power, class, faith, desire, and be a natural kind in the same time. The jewels and clothes are deprived of contexts and reset in a candid manner by the two artists. The temptation from the objects could still be perceived straightforwardly. While it is not exclusively in the material sense, the temptation also comes from the context-deprived desire, the mystery of desire per se. Only if the viewers intend to stare these symbols of desire from a new and strange perspective, the desire starts to be the guide for the viewers through their own perceptual capacities.

In the exhibition The Tango on Ripples, there is another approach to explore in the journey. It concentrates on a particular object – the face – which is employed by our four artists in different manners. From the intended blank face in Wang Jinbo’s works to the obscure state caused by overlying and mixture of the facial features adopted by Liu Zigsen, after that the viewers will find the faces of buddhas under Wang Dazhuo’s bush, which are the outcome of public imagination, then this approach ends in Chen Fenwan’s imaginative portraying of definite facial features. This approach takes face as its cord and interacts with the main approach to form the polyphony as the context of The Tango on Ripples, just like the background music of dance.

Having experienced the exploration of desire through the state and object, the viewers will be encompassed by Chen Fenwan’s works in the end of the journey. And now the viewers’ perception would be activated intuitively by the colors and figures in the artworks without efforts. The high color saturation is always one of most salient characteristics of Chen Fenwan’s art. But the preference of colors does not originate from the artist’s intention, but from a kind of intuitive reaction. On the contrary to this intuition, she investigates the symmetry principle in her artistic practices. The principle of symmetry for her in the kirigami not just as a core law governing and regulating her creation, it is also a sort of invitation for her to see the unseen in this area. Thus, the methodological element that regulates the practices is also the motivational element that orients the practices in the content. When the symmetry has been manifested, the viewers would notice effortlessly that the tension between two symmetric components and their tentative or frolic state is exactly what represented by Tango.

In the journey of The Tango on Ripples, the state constructed by the artworks animates and sharpens the viewers’ perceptual capacities to the extent that the viewers’ perception would carry out an exploration sui generis. This transformative experience is realized by the orienting from and wrestling with the desire, from the intoxication of material objects and the introspective soliloquy to the life experience narrated jointly by ourselves and our symmetric others in the end.
From the forbidden fruit in the forest, the diamond ring on a lady’s finger, the crown adorned with jewels, the soliloquy under the spotlight, and staying true to rights and freedom in one’s own life experience and in others’ narrations.

This journey embarks on the state expressed by the works from Liu Zigsen and Wang Jinbo. In Terminal Forest – The Corner of the World and Terminal Forest – The Sub-lunary Sphere, the trees under Liu Zigsen’s arrangement appear through the irregular geometrical lines, by which the forest emanates mystery and enchantment. It allures the viewers to stay within it, and reforms the impression of forest in the viewers’ mind. The same effect can be also found in The Secret of Light, Dry Wild Fruit and Dew, Sunshine and Vanilla from Wang Jinbo. The yellow in the paintings functioning like spotlight tenderly introduces the viewers’ attention to the specific states in which the characters are, and keeps the eyes on them steadily.

Comparing with abstract concepts and reasons, the states based on perception are much better representatives of the essence of life experience. In Watching the Sea, the curtain is under the character. Contrasting with the external guide from the spotlight, the viewers’ attention is attracted by the force from within in this picture. The rolling waves with tiled grass are reflected by the mirror out of which the character is staring. The character, mirror, grass and waves jointly create a loop in this artwork: the character is observing the waves by virtue of the mirror, and the waves together with the grass set the ground of the character; moreover, this loop invites the viewers to join in. The visual experience of the viewers consists, instead of deductive reasoning aiming to another deeper level, of renovation on the perception triggered by the states conveyed in these works.

After the reformation of the viewers’ perception, the immediacy of desire is revealed by the object per se, through a group of works composed of Dress Up series from Wang Jinbo, Container series and Coronation series from Wang Dazhuo. The jewels and clothes implicate extravagant senses. They could signify wealth, power, class, faith, desire, and be a natural kind in the same time. The jewels and clothes are deprived of contexts and reset in a candid manner by the two artists. The temptation from the objects could still be perceived straightforwardly. While it is not exclusively in the material sense, the temptation also comes from the context-deprived desire, the mystery of desire per se. Only if the viewers intend to stare these symbols of desire from a new and strange perspective, the desire starts to be the guide for the viewers through their own perceptual capacities.

In the exhibition The Tango on Ripples, there is another approach to explore in the journey. It concentrates on a particular object – the face – which is employed by our four artists in different manners. From the intended blank face in Wang Jinbo’s works to the obscure state caused by overlying and mixture of the facial features adopted by Liu Zigsen, after that the viewers will find the faces of buddhas under Wang Dazhuo’s bush, which are the outcome of public imagination, then this approach ends in Chen Fenwan’s imaginative portraying of definite facial features. This approach takes face as its cord and interacts with the main approach to form the polyphony as the context of The Tango on Ripples, just like the background music of dance.

Having experienced the exploration of desire through the state and object, the viewers will be encompassed by Chen Fenwan’s works in the end of the journey. And now the viewers’ perception would be activated intuitively by the colors and figures in the artworks without efforts. The high color saturation is always one of most salient characteristics of Chen Fenwan’s art. But the preference of colors does not originate from the artist’s intention, but from a kind of intuitive reaction. On the contrary to this intuition, she investigates the symmetry principle in her artistic practices. The principle of symmetry for her in the kirigami not just as a core law governing and regulating her creation, it is also a sort of invitation for her to see the unseen in this area. Thus, the methodological element that regulates the practices is also the motivational element that orients the practices in the content. When the symmetry has been manifested, the viewers would notice effortlessly that the tension between two symmetric components and their tentative or frolic state is exactly what represented by Tango.

In the journey of The Tango on Ripples, the state constructed by the artworks animates and sharpens the viewers’ perceptual capacities to the extent that the viewers’ perception would carry out an exploration sui generis. This transformative experience is realized by the orienting from and wrestling with the desire, from the intoxication of material objects and the introspective soliloquy to the life experience narrated jointly by ourselves and our symmetric others in the end.