HUOHEIAN 火黑暗

HUOHEIAN ⽕⿊ 暗 , 2024
Site-specific installation

LIST OF ARTWORKS
一
Spirit Path (64 I-Ching Hexagram Plates)
Chinese Mo ink, gypsum cement
480 x 480 x 80 cm each
二
Sentinels (2 Inverted Columns)
Chinese Mo ink, concrete, ash, speakers
240 x 480 cm each

Collection of the artist

HUOHEIAN (火黑暗) translates to ‘fire and shadow’, an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to serve as the opposing spatial philosophy to the wider known Fengshui (‘Wind-Water’, 风水). Whilst Fengshui favours flow, symmetry and spatial harmony - centred around gardens of water and light; HUOHEIAN is defined by spatial obstructions, asymmetry and diagonality - anchored by gardens of stone and shadow.

Old works have been shattered into aggregate and reincarnated; recast into new forms composed of
Chinese Ink, Ash and Reinforced Concrete. With voids akin to mortise and tenon joints found in the
columns of Ancient Chinese temples; a sound is emitted from their cavities - a heavily detuned brass
temple bowl every 88 seconds.

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Exhibition Text
Kien Situ explores matter, ruin, proximity, numerology and time to deconstruct and re-imagine notions of space and identity. HUOHEIAN (火黑暗) translates to ‘fire and shadow’, which is an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to serve as the opposing spatial philosophy to the wider known Fengshui (‘Wind-Water’, 风水). Anchoring the installation is a diagonal path of sixty-four Chinese ink and cement plates, each representing a hexagram from the ancient Chinese text of the I-Ching. However, this formation has been disrupted by the gallery’s own architecture to become unsettled and in flux. Emitting a subtle reverberating sound, two columns that are made from the reincarnated aggregate of earlier concrete works, are anchored in opposition. These towering structures, reminiscent of Huabiao (华表), or ancient ceremonial pillars often found in pairs at the entrance to tombs in Ancient China, are divided, challenging the binaries between asymmetry and harmony, the material and the ethereal. Through spatial tension, Situ invites contemplation on the fluidity of cultural identities in a globalised world, reflecting on how identity and geography are intertwined and transformed.