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【Review】"Crossing Realities" —— Chengyan Tan & Kaji (Carmelo Ferreri)online Duo exhibitionTime:2021-12-03

 

【Review】Crossing Realities —— Chengyan Tan & Kaji (Carmelo Ferreri)online Duo exhibition

中意设计交流中心 中意设计交流中心 2021-12-03 12:00 

 

 

 

 

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The online Duo exhibition “Crossing Realities——a collection of intuitive and intellectual visual narratives” of Chinese and Italian artists Chengyan Tan & Kaji (Carmelo Ferreri), is organized by the DoBe Group (Stock Exchange Symbol 300947) and the Sino Italian Design Exchange Center, in collaboration with the Municipality of Florence, District 4 of the Municipality of Florence, the Shanghai Promotion Center for City of Design, the Shanghai International Culture Association, and the Ugo Guidi Museum, will open at 12:00 on 3 December 2021. 

 

 

 
Foreword
 

 

This exhibition brings the works of two artists with very different cultural backgrounds and significant differences in terms of the style of their work. Nonetheless, there seem to be some deep links between their artworks. These links are subconscious. Behind their lines on paper, there is deep scrutiny and observation of the state of human beings and what exists between the perceived reality and other levels of being.

Intuition and imagination are combined to explore and give a visual representation of the states of being. The artworks explore the multifaceted nature of being human, what it means to have a self-identity, the relationship between this identity, people and objects, the existence in a determined environment, the desire to lean outward, linking our consciousness to a broader dimension. From different perspectives, they present a mysterious and peculiar experience of vision, consciousness and dreams.

 


 

 
ARTISTS
 

 

   
Chengyan Tan
 

Shanghai, China

 

Her work explores self-consciousness, a voyage through observation of the depth and vastness of consciousness manifestation, that presents into abstract and organic, soft and round visual expression. The graphics lay in organic and natural compositions. This form makes people connect and feel to unspeakable energy that draws people away from their daily lives. It helps them to reach the unknown realm of their self-consciousness.

In each creation, she dissolves herself and links to a broader consciousness of the universe, which speaks another language. In this process, the sense of identity as a human being and our belonging in nature are questioned and explored to many extents. Each action of the painting, moment by moment, holds a perception of the changing state of self-consciousness. Every minute and every second contains infinite inspirations.

Her art practice is influenced a lot by Zen Meditation culture and concepts, using soft, transparent and casual lines to present a delicate beauty. At the same time, her creative style is also influenced by the aesthetics of Western modern abstractive art.

In recent years, coloured pencils and watercolours have become her main creative tools. She said that the use of these two materials is related to the changes in her life. She enjoys using coloured pencils to slowly form a calm, natural and flexible creative disposition of various levels and shapes.

 

 

 
Artist
Statement
 
 

"In between the reality and the illusion, 

I find the existence."

 

Another day passed,

I lived another day in this world.

Every day I wake up, it came back to “reality”.

But what is the“reality” and what is the “dream”?

I try to explore the dream world through paintings,

The more works created, the more I discover

The dream world and the reality actually are the one, 

the paper divided them.

Through the paper, 

I vaguely see them on the other side of the world.

They are another kind of being, 

they are the state that I present of “myself”

The image of “I” was detached and dismembered, 

and changed into other shapes.

Their physical boundaries are blurred and mixed with each other,

Floating back and forth between the reality and dreams.

All these images are me, and I am everything.

As an interpretation of the state of self-existence,

I feel the power of the universe, which is the feeling of love.

 

 

   

Kaji

(Carmelo Ferreri)

 

Milan, Italy

 

Kaji (Carmelo Ferreri) was born in Milan, Italy in 1986. Graduated in Design from "Politecnico di Milano", Milan. Studied Design & Innovation in Tongji University. Currently working as a founder, creative designer and illustrator in Melo& Yan Design Studio.

Kaji's artworks and illustrations are explorations of inner “zones” where reality and imagination are both processed, mixed and re-elaborated to come back into a new imaginative form, new shapes and compositions. 

The work presents the manifestation of the metaphorical language of unconsciousness and cross-cultural symbols, these manifestations are formed by the influence of its western origins and combined within the influence of Asian art and culture. They are mixed together to create new spaces and lands, places that are populated by modern and traditional creatures, past and future populations, futuristic societies that find their balance and reason to be between machine intelligence and the forces of nature. 

All the artwork use fine-liner outline techniques mixed with digital or watercolour colouring, most of the time all the artworks are a bird-eye view of imaginary landscapes where some metaphorical manifestation of consciousness and reality, appear and interact with each other. The most recent exhibition in Shanghai, “Recharge & Reform” at Xintiandi Hubindao, Shanghai, in July 2021.

 


 

 

 
ARTWORKS
 

 

Chengyan Tan
 

 

 

The Maze of the Consciousness

Color Pencil on Paper 

756mm* 566mm  |  2021

The fabric of this inner space is natural and organic, dynamically keeping in a self-replicating circle. They replicate into a maze. At the bottom-right, where there is a deeper concentration of space, a circular exit is formed. Is it another entrance of another maze? I try to examine the activity of the consciousness and observe the images it created, transferring them on paper. I use soft and organic lines to express the illusory qualities of this space. 

It is the compassion and uncertainty nature of consciousness activities. We receive all kinds of different information and ideas every day, which makes our inner space very complicated. It is easy for us to get lost in this confusion. What I want to explore is whether there is free fluidity in this complex and psychedelic consciousness space. What I am looking for is the beauty that touches everyone's heart inside this fluidity.

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Four Entrances

Color Pencil on Paper

560mm* 380mm | 2021

I started by drawing a line on paper slowly - a very simple line and the pen moved across the paper in very small units, each time within half a centimeters. And I drew the whole thing little by little.

Blank paper is an unknown world, and what I need to do is to explore and discover all kinds of hidden things under the surface of it, outline their dimension and depth layer by layer, and reveal them.

With simple tools and methods, I can better and more purely focus my attention and energy on the state of "movement", where my body and mind are linked together and become a whole.
I first chiseled out four portals on the paper, and then I saw more portals that seemed to be replicating themselves, superimposing and merging with eachother. Half of their bodies penetrate below the horizontal line, forming amirror image.

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Moments, Ripples and Entrance

Color Pencil on Paper 

299*420mm | 2021

First, I draw an organic round shape on the paper. It was one of those long vertical shapes. The lines were clean and steady but soft at the same time. Then I drew a straight "horizon line" in its center.

This horizon line runs across the whole paper surface, meeting the vertical lines of the organic circles, creating multiple cross shapes.

I continue to explore this vertical opening, creating layers of "ripples" that arise in every moment, every movement of the inner mind.

These ripples are generated at the moment and exist outside of time. Every one of them is the appearance of the other kind of space existing outside the material world.

This vertical shape in the middle seems to be an exit or an entrance to somewhere.

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Endless Visions

Watercolor and Color Pencil on Paper 

390*540mm  | 2020

I start at a point and plot the trajectory of a circle, On the outside of it, I draw another circle.

What I want to explore is that in the course of this behavior, What is left on the paper?

During the drawing process, my heart generates thinking action, my hands generate moving action.

The smell of the studio and the curtains that fluttered in the wind affected me.

All these movements affect me, and in this way, they transfer into shapes on paper.

Each circle created a new center, even though they give the illusion to belong to a similar center.

The "Horizon line"crosses it and meets each central circle. Is there anything like this central circle also within our mind?

Is this central circle about the self or is it about something else?  What is it made of?  If these central circles are illusions of consciousness, do they have an end, and beyond that end, what kind of existenceis there?

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The Cocoon of the Consciousness

Watercolor and Color Pencil on Paper 

756mm* 566mm  |  2020

A being made of emotional awareness. In certain energy beyond consciousness,

I feel lighter and smoother, I become more transparent. My hand slid the brush over the paper to form some soft and elastic, chaotic but clear material shapes. They are intertwined layer by layer, although each has its own boundary,
but they merge into each other, forming a cocoon.

It is formed by a strong but soft material of existence, it is divided but integral, it is contradictory but also in harmony.
It is natural and organic. It connects to the emotions and moves beyond it.

I found myself wandering in between illusion and reality.
Are these images creating a part of that giant and infinite space?

In order to see its full face, I kept creating, the brush and the body together keep forming waves.

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The Entrance and 24 Soft Matters

Watercolor and Color Pencil on Paper

756mm* 566mm | 2021

The inspiration for this piece came from one early morning, I was surrounded by some gray colors in air. I did not open my eyes, but I could see them clearly: An entrance and some soft and floating matters, I did not know how many of them were there until I finished the work. "I opened a big portal in my heart, some soft material was lined up there, They look soft but pliable. Their bodies are soaked below sea level, It was as if a gust of wind would make them sway. What would it feel like if I went through their body? What kind of space is behind them?"

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Holes Overlay

Watercolor and Color Pencil on Paper 

785mm* 546mm  |  2020

The ripples of emotions, desires, experiences and consciousness form holes in the air, like water dropping to the ground, spreading, and then disappearing.

Each one of them is competing to blossom, but they merge into each other, they are organic, fragile besides strong beings.

The layers of holes that open the door to the unconscious represent the energy of the universe, the energy of "me".

We were born from the womb, and then when we die, will we come in through some entrance and start our new journey?

The hole and the entrance, that's a very attractive theme to me.

During my childhood and adolescence, when I started to draw, I always left a nearly circular space in some part of the picture.

I always felt that this empty space had more secrets inside.

Through these experiences and perceptions, I gradually formed the creation of paintings with holes and circles as the main figures, and these drawings and figures were the links between me and the universal consciousness.

The hole, it always makes people feel mysterious, wants to enter.

It also creates a sense of mystery and fear: is the hole the end? And what kind of existence will that end be?

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Floating Organisms

Watercolor and Color Pencil on Paper 

635mm* 465mm  | 2020

After made the “Holes Expansion", I began to work on "Floating organisms".

After many days of hard-working, it is finished. Every time I finish a piece of work, there is no sense of satisfaction. I look at it intently to see if there is anything else to add or remove, If not, it is considered as“finished". This painting is a continuation of "Holes Expansion", and it also exists independently. I try to describe it, but I feel It itself is telling me something.

I feel their energy is positive. These floating organisms, they pull and merge with each other. In each of them, there is a hole, or is the hole that creates them ? Through their holes I could see the void world, it is looming.

There were always some anxiety and conflicts in my creative process. There are some past moments and thoughts suddenly come to the mind, they are like a dream, which does not have many colours. They are some complex thoughts which are drifting.

When I draw a circle, the pencil rustles on the paper, the pencil and the hand have their own place to go, and take on various layers of colour on the paper, these complex thoughts disappear, and then they came back to the mind again and again.

I did not deliberately pursue "beautiful" shapes. Everything is naturally placed in its place, everything in accordance with its rhythm. After I finished one part, I saw the next part on the paper and then I drew it down.

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Kaji
 

 

PART/
01
 Private Ecosystems Series 2021

 

This is the most recent series I developed during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic when I was in lockdown situation in Shanghai, but only started publishing at the beginning of 2021. It is the exploration of a dystopian future where our share deco system for some reason fails, and it becomes a private commodity. Each individual to survive needs to care about its own "bubble" of green that allows him to survive and continue his life. With these premises I am creating a series of illustrations that show the dynamics of life in this environment, the style of illustration, however, contrary to all dystopian genres, is deliberately friendly, almost to make everything desirable.

 

Private Ecosystem Society

Limited Edition –Giclee FineArt Print – Fine-liner Pen and Digital Coloring

270g - White Matte Velvet Fine Art Paper

500 mm x 654 mm

 

 

 

                           Us & Them

Limited Edition –Giclee FineArt Print – Fine-liner Pen and Colour Pencils

270g - White Matte Velvet Fine Art Paper

308 mm x 196 mm

 

 

 

PART/
02
The Map Of Mountains and Seas Series

 

This series is born in 2018, is inspired by a Classic of Pre-Qin Dynasty culture called the Map of Mountains and Seas (Classic of Mountains and Seas, or Shanhai Jing), a sort of compendium of mythological creatures and places myths of China.

 

Fascinated by this idea, I decided to create a map myself, drawing about modern cultural myths, the map is populated with creatures born of my imagination to which are created for persona; cultural meaning, there are robots, artificial intelligence and so on. Slowly all the characters that appear on the map they are developed in separate illustrations, where their stories and their connection with some social and cultural issues are deepened.

 

The Map of Mountains and Seas

Limited Edition –Giclee FineArt Print, Fine-liner Pen and Digital Colouring

270g - White Matte Velvet Fine Art Paper

520 mm x 390 mm

 

Eden

Limited Edition –GicleeFineArt Print – Fine-liner Pen and Digital Coloring

270g - White Matte Velvet Fine Art Paper

520 mm x 390 mm

 

 

PART/
03
Organic & Synthetic Life Series

 

Another series that I carry on is called "Organic & Synthetic Life", are search on the relationship between nature, humans and artificial life. There are odd machines, chess games, animals and natural landscapes.

 

 

 

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

Limited Edition –Giclee FineArt Print - Fine-liner Pen and Digital Coloring

270g - White Matte Velvet Fine Art Paper

450 mm x 450 mm

 

M.1.M.0.

or Multiple Input, Multiple Output

Limited Edition –Giclee FineArt Print - Fine-liner Pen and Digital Coloring

270g - White Matte Velvet Fine Art Paper

270 mm x 555 mm

 

 

October Equus

a.k.a The Horse Sacrifice

Limited Edition –Giclee FineArt Print - Fine-liner Pen and Digital Coloring

270g - White Matte Velvet Fine Art Paper

270 mm x 555 mm

 

 

 

 

Roboland

Limited Edition –Giclee FineArt Print - Fine-liner Pen and Digital Coloring

270g - White Matte Velvet Fine Art Paper

320 mm x 470 mm

 

 

 

 
INTERVIEW
 
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Sino Italian Design Exchange Center

 

What does it mean for you to "be an artist" and dedicate yourself to art?

Kaji
 

I consider it as a form of exploration, a way to navigate the world while I extend the recording of thoughts and mental processes from the brain onto other media like papers. In many ways, these explorations give birth to imaginary landscapes and images of different societies, they arise almost from nowhere, sometimes they hold deep meanings and mysterious objects. I like to see art as the physical manifestation of these “mindscapes”, and the artist or art-viewer as a researcher of the unknown, challenging themselves not to hold onto a fixed mind, but always explore a step further or back-up some steps, seeing a little bit more or a little bit less of what is manifested.

Chengyan Tan
 

Engaging in artistic creation is a natural action for me, just like eating and sleeping. It is a meditative action, a process of self-exploration, and the work of art is the embodiment of a certain moment in this process. Therefore, for me, artistic creation is the behavior of exploring the unknown in the known life, and it is a way to explore the conscious and subconscious in depth. Through this exploration, a certain common state of consciousness of human beings is manifested and reflected, and through this performance, the viewer can also penetrate into their inner world, so as to open the door of human consciousness and awareness and discover the infinite potential of ourselves.

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Sino Italian Design Exchange Center

 

Where does your creative inspiration come from?

Kaji
 

I think my inspiration sources come from observation, which can be the observations of relationships people form between each other, the one they form with nature, animals, what we look for when we create machines, myths, or religious symbols. All these moments of observation I believe are stored somewhere, then one day, triggered by a bigger inspirational moment or event, they all connect and become a tangible thing.

Chengyan Tan
 

My artistic inspiration is an experience of the moment. I am a relatively sensitive person. My inspiration often comes from the awareness of every moment in life, the experience of the inner state of myself, and the thinking about the state of human existence from the micro to the macro. Maybe this kind of awareness will not be converted into artistic language immediately, but they will leave traces in my consciousness. Then I also like to often walk in nature. Many organic graphics in nature and the state of life will become the trigger point of my inspiration.

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Sino Italian Design Exchange Center

 

What kind of relationship do you think people and art should establish?

Kaji
 

I think that people inspire the artist in their doing, art inspires people in their thinking and acting, in a never-ending circle. Even if on the surface the artist and the viewer seem separated, they never stop influencing each other or need each other. Probably both artists and people need to start to be aware of this connection and link, being open to it and understanding the interdependence between each other.

Chengyan Tan
 

The outbreak of the epidemic could be caused by many reasons. One of the most important factors could be that some of our behaviors have broken a sort of balance in nature, the balance that nature maintains in its own way. In fact, this imbalance is not only reflected in nature. As a part of nature, we are also in an imbalanced state in modern high-speed and high-pressure life. Our neglect and loss of the inner world is the main reason for this imbalance. Art can help people become aware of more of the inner world, calm the mind that seeks outward, dissolve our inner barriers, and pay more attention to the inner state of consciousness. The moment in which we are touched by works of art, our hearts will become soft and free, so this state is a good start.

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Sino Italian Design Exchange Center

 

What impact did the experience of crossing between the East and the West have on your art?

Kaji
 

It had a strong impact in understanding how even the smallest details can be perceived differently in different cultural models and how these models can impact both in limiting or expanding our view of the world, they can create barriers, separate people into sets of “Us” and “Them”, or make our search for more common points that go beyond the cultural surface. I recently come into thinking that East and West on our spherical planet, don’t exist unless we decide to see everything from a fixed centre. In each artwork, I try to blur the barriers between cultures, trying to identify the core message in them and connect them in different possible ways.

Chengyan Tan
 

I grew up in Shanghai and went to study art in the Netherlands. The school is located in Utrecht, a small Dutch city. The first day when I came to the city, I heard the church bell which had a deep and far-reaching echo. The houses were small, the sky was blue, and the clouds were floating behind. A feeling of loneliness and tranquility came to my heart. Those years in Europe were also the process of slow down and calm down of my heart. It could be said that I found the lost Eastern artistic conception in a small western city, and here I observed my own body culture from the perspective of a bystander, I explored the differences and commonalities between Eastern and Western culture. This period was also the real beginning of my artistic creation. I discovered the way I wanted to express, and constantly explored and penetrated into my inner world.

 

 
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