1985People's livelihood Journalist Huang Paoping 黃寶萍
1985People's livelihood Journalist Huang Paoping 黃寶萍
1985 Solo Show ''Improvised Painting-I''.
Jen-Chen Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
1985People's livelihood
Journalist Huang Paoping 黃寶萍
Improvisation Until Satisfaction
Liang Ping-Cheng Becomes Artist-in-Residence in Jia-ren Gallery
Liang Ping-Cheng, the winner of the EighthLion Art New Artist Award, had a high-profile relocation of his studio to Jia-ren Gallery today. He continues his improvisational painting on the walls, the ceilings and the floors until he is happy with the works. From today to the 11th next month, he will be painting over all Jia-ren Gallery, as his whims take him to. Liang said that he will paint by living the most liberal lifestyle, day and night. This creative process is open to all the lovers of art.
Liang indicates that everybody has his own personality and creative art can be done in different environments. He is currently on improvisational painting, revealing his studio and living by painting. At this juncture, he is not sure what he is able to come up with. This totally depends on the environment and the moment of thinking. He said that painting is a risky endeavor and success is in no way guaranteed.
However, Liang believes his odds of success are 70-80%. He was graduated from Department of Fine Arts, Chinese Culture University in June this year. Many of his classmates are involved in improvisational painting. The trend is going for bigger sizes. Sometimes he has troubles understanding his urge to fill the whole wall with painting. However, he thinks the current attempt may be a better style. It is said that Liang’s improvisational painting on the walls and floors of an art gallery is the first ever in Taiwan. During this period, Liang also showcases his past works so that people can better understand his creative process.
How to Paint. What to Paint. All for Your Eyes.
Both the Process and the Outcome.
Art workers can choose what and how they create, but Liang seems even more different in how he does it. He said that improvisational painting on the walls, on the ceilings and on the floors take on a different meaning for him. Some people would lock themselves up to painting, away from other people. Others choose to hide away in the mountains and forests in order to think and create. However, Liang takes on a worldly approach by openly displaying his creative process. After all, creative art needs to speak and connect with the outside world. He had the idea long time ago about painting on the walls of an art gallery. A classmate of his suggested that they should paint on the school bus, but Liang believes that he needs to be responsible for his own behavior. Spray painting graffiti on New York subways and playing hide-and-seek with the police is not a good idea. Finally, Jia-ren Gallery allowed him to “evade” their own walls. This gives Liang a creative space. For him, painting is an absolute express. It feels good and smooth. Impulsive beauty is more captivating than rational painting. Liang compares the process of painting to the pulse of cultural heritage. The circulation of artworks to the future generations is nothing but a visual intuition across generations. Therefore, he wants to discard the preservation of his works but focuses on the process of creation. That said, this does not imply the process is more important than the outcome. His improvisation must come to fruition, and he needs to accomplish this creative endeavor. Of course, the process of painting is an adventure and a challenge. He is ready for it. The more ordeals, the better. Some may say, “This is probably following an arty trend overseas” when they hear about Liang’s exhibition. In fact, he was astonished when he saw graffiti in the undergrounds overseas. How come the works are so familiar! He had no prior knowledge or information about it. “This is probably because I received the formal training in Western arts. After all, all roads lead to Rome.” Liang emphasizes the differences in nature despite the similarity in forms. This is because of different cultural backgrounds. “Painting is nothing complicated. Just paint it. Think it.” Liang is putting his foot down for this exhibition. He hopes the public pays less attention in how he does it. What matters is what he achieves.
Bèn niǎo Painting Club
The solo exhibition of spontaneous painting at Jia-ren Gallery was not a traditional art exhibition, in which paintings were hung and displayed. Instead, the whole gallery space was turned into one painting. According to Liang himself, he took a couple of Kaoliang and a few boxes of paint, and locked himself in the gallery. When doing spontaneous artistic creation, one had to be freewheeling first. A bunch of reporters came to the site, hoping to know more about this artistic precedence. They stood behind the artist to watch the "performance." There were no references or preliminary sketches for the spontaneous painting. His only idea was to fill the entire exhibition space with painting, from the first inch to the last. The floor, walls, and ceiling would be covered in painting; one could not tell the beginning from the end, the left from the right, the ceiling from the floor. The entire space was one giant work. Liang's "spontaneous sculpture," which he was to fully develop later, could already be detected here. He used twenty-seven days to complete this massive work. It took nearly one month to create, and was on view for one month. On the opening day, the same group of reporters came back to report on the exhibition and its repercussion. It was a special case that the exhibition was covered twice by media. From the second group exhibition of Ban Niao, in which the trans-avantgarde began to take effect, to the maturing spontaneous painting at Jia-ren Gallery, which was still not counted as climbing to the top of the world, to the third and fourth Ban Niao group exhibitions at Nan Gallery and Taipei Culture Center, which were merely two of the "hundred peaks," the solo exhibition of spontaneous painting at Jia-ren Gallery hinted at the fact that Liang was close to complete the "hundred-peak test." After conquering the challenge of the three-thousand-meter mountains, he now was confident enough to take on the five-thousand-meter challenge.
I just graduated from college that year, and held an exhibition of spontaneous painting at Jia-ren Gallery. I did not rely on any single picture or sketch but my own imagination. In twenty-seven days, I freely painted the entire space of the gallery, including the floor, walls, and ceiling, which was more than 231 m2. Decades later, I now make wood sculptures, and am still do it without reference or sketch. Instead, I follow the nature of the wood and create a dialogue with the life the wood used to have. Humbly speaking, such an approach to carve according to the nature of the wood is unique and forms personal characteristics.
Ping-Cheng LIANG 梁 平 正