A Matter of Time by Wyn-Lyn Tan

WYN-LY N TA N A M AT T E R O F T I M E

W Y N - LY N TA N A M AT T E R O F T I M E

16 January - 21 March 2021 FOST GALLERY

Tan Siuli

Time, Formed

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Opalescence series 2020 FOST Gallery Installation view

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Curator Charles Merewether cites Tan’s account of how her time in Northern Europe opened her eyes to “a resonance in that Northern vastness that connected with the sense of ‘breathing space’ and emptiness in Chinese landscape painting”. (Charles Merewether, “Signs of the Sublime: Wyn-Lyn Tan” in The Blue of Distance , 2015, pp. 5, exhibition catalogue.)

The same observation has been made by curator Beth Citron, who notes: “There, in the ever-present horizon near the North Pole, (Tan) noticed affinities between the Romantic sublime and the spare aesthetics of Chinese landscapes, and created a visual vocabulary that connects her experience in two seemingly dissonant places.” (Beth Citron, “Abstracting Materiality: Wyn-Lyn Tan and Roya Farassat”, http://www. saparcontemporary.com/abstracting-materiality)

Wyn-Lyn Tan is known for her abstract painting practice, which reflects her abiding interests in materiality and mark-making.

Foregrounded by her training in both Eastern and Western painting traditions, her works oscillate between pure gesture and intimations of form – most frequently the evocation of landscapes and natural forces. Much has also been noted about her quest for translucency and lightness in her works; this is enmeshed with Tan’s interest in the idea of the void or emptiness in her paintings, and may be attributed as much to her background in traditional Chinese painting as well as to her experience with the stark landscapes of Scandinavia1. In her past series of works, Tan has often used subtractive processes to achieve this translucency, masking areas of her canvas with rice paper before working over these ‘negative’ spaces, or daubing at swathes of paint with blotting paper. In her new body of work, many of these preoccupations continue, but in new material explorations.

Her most recent body of work in the exhibition A Matter of Time, alludes to the inevitability of time’s passage, as well as the idea of matter, or materiality. These works explore the multidimensionality of time, and continue Tan’s experimentation with unconventional materials to extend her painting practice.

Much of the genesis of this body of work can be found in a series started by the artist during the pandemic lockdown in Singapore, titled Circadian.

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Circadian comprises a series of luminous paintings on plexiglass discs and blocks, and articulates the artist’s experience of time during lockdown. Daily rhythms were disrupted; days and nights bled into each other. Time started to feel ambiguous, without the cycle of social rituals and activities to clock the hours. In order to maintain some semblance of regularity, Tan started to paint on circular discs of plexiglass at intervals throughout her day, as a kind of ‘routine’ to keep herself in check (Fig. 1).

TOP: Fig. 1

Circadian series 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass Dimensions variable

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Initially Tan was keen to explore the transparency of plexiglass as a means to retain the luminosity of her brushstrokes, and a medium to convey the sense of lightness, translucency and ‘emptiness’ that has been a constant preoccupation of her painting. However, the nature of this new material proved as slippery as the sense of time during this extraordinary period. As opposed to the absorbency and opaqueness of conventional canvas, plexiglass is smooth, and a paint mark slips and slides around on it, rather than sinking in permanently. Paint also

takes longer to cure on its surface, thereby challenging the artist’s understanding of working with a medium she was used to. This proved disruptive in many ways, for often Tan found herself having to wait overnight for her paint strokes to dry, and it was also impossible to predict how each paint stroke would cure and form on the slippery surface.

Waiting – time – allowed new mark-making to emerge; during this pause, Tan would manipulate the paint by continuing the intuitive subtractive as well as additive processes that have informed much of her abstract painting practice, by sweeping away the wet stroke, or adding on to the stroke that had dried overnight. Time too, was needed to learn how to master this new material: Tan considers her early experiments failures, because the initial results were too opaque and muddy. As much as Circadian was a means for the artist to mark time and express its fluidity, it also encapsulated an intense period of time’s passage, and accumulation of experience. Tan’s paint strokes appear spontaneous and expressive on the plexiglass discs, but these belie a long period of learning and adjusting to the new material. At the same time, it was an exhilarating experience, the translucency of plexiglass offering up new avenues of exploration.

On this substrate, the ghosts or traces of the first marks made are retained, even as paint is pushed around. The transparency of plexiglass also means that each disc offers up two surfaces that can be painted on rather than a single plane, and these two surfaces become each other’s foreground as well as background. Tan’s vivid, swirling brushstrokes on each transparent disc thus become an evocation of time’s multidimensionality, where the past is also visible in the present and vice-versa; each work is a palimpsest of paint layers, where the artist’s gestures and decisions are recorded and rendered visible, the resultant composition a transparent document of time and process. Just as with her earlier works presented in her solo exhibition The Blue of Distance at FOST Gallery in 2015, where she experimented with painting on wood and negotiated its grain2, here the materiality of painting and its support have become one.

TOP: Fig. 2 The artist at work in her makeshift home studio.

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In these works, the wood does not serve merely as a material support for painting or concept; its character and materiality become part of the work as the artist discovers new forms of mark-making by bleeding paint across its grain, or using sandpaper to abrade areas to reveal negative spaces. See Merewether, C., opp. cit ., pp. 12.

Confined to working from home, Tan also found herself painting by her window. Holding up the discs to the daylight outside, she was struck by how the tenor of the work shifted with the changing of the light, and how vignettes of her surrounding environment were also drawn into the picture plane (Fig. 2).

These experiences informed the install of A Matter of Time at FOST Gallery. The large circular portals titled Opalescence I-V that greet the viewer upon entry are a continuation of Circadian’s preoccupations as well as material explorations.

A vividness of colour can be observed in this new body of work, their vibrance enhanced by the translucency of the plexiglass discs. Passages of unpainted space recall the artist’s 09

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Lunar Ruminations & I See Mountains series 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass ( Lunar Ruminations ) Acrylic and resin on mahogany wood ( I See Mountains ) Dimensions variable Installation view

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longstanding interest in the void; here, this ‘emptiness’ becomes part of the complete image. With their fluid, swirling swathes of colour, these portals conjure up images of a world in flux, the slow movement of natural forces and land masses, or a view of earth from space. The discs on their pedestals are arranged in an arc to embrace the viewer, and also to suggest the elliptical orbits of the cosmos, as well as the diurnal movements of (clocked) time.

In speaking about this body of work, Tan’s reference to the Light and Space movement is illuminating3, for it suggests some of the trajectories the artist was keen to explore, and extend. It has been argued that the artists associated with the Light and Space movement were responding to the radiant light and atmosphere of California where this art movement originated, and in their works they sought to capture the phenomena and phenomenology of colour and light, expressed in minimalist forms. This is most evident in the works of one of its best-known practitioners, James Turrell. Turrell’s immersive environments capture the changing of colour and light over the course of time, and the subtle shifts that occur in union with elemental phenomena: the passing of a cloud over the face of the sun, changing the quality of light experienced within his work for a fleeting moment; the emotional tenor of a domed space experienced in the clear blue sunlight of mid-day as compared to the violet hues of soft evening light, and the million subtle gradations in between.

With this anecdote, it is possible to discern Tan’s objectives in installing her cycle of works as such, exploring the expression and expressiveness of colour not just on surfaces but also in space. Placed near the gallery entrance, her Opalescence discs bask in the ambient light filtering in from the gallery door, the emotional experience of colour, light, and the installation as a whole shifting in tandem with the light and time of day.

The ephemerality of this perception and experience of colour is also informed by Tan’s own encounters with light in nature, particularly during her time spent amidst the atmospheric landscapes of the Arctic4, where nuances of light can shift and stir sensibilities. This notion is articulated in a series of smaller works in the exhibition, titled Lunar Ruminations and I See Mountains. On small shelves approximating domestic bookshelves, Tan has assembled her own personal, microlandscapes that refer to and draw on larger natural and cosmic forces. It is telling that the title makes reference to the moon, the planet thought to be closely linked with human emotions, and the ebb and flow of water and bodily cycles – the landscapes that live within us.

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Personal conversation with the artist.

Tan travelled on an artist-and scientistled expedition to the international territory of Svalbard, an archipelago in the Arctic Circle with The Arctic Circle Residency in 2011. In 2015, she embarked on a two-year Master of Contemporary Art programme at the Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art in Northern Norway.

A Matter of Time is Tan’s first time working with painting in an object-installation, and each of her plinths and bases has been carefully considered and constructed. Tan considers them part of the artwork, and they point to her desire to extend the limits of painting, and its frames or boundaries.

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TOP & BOTTOM RIGHT: Figs. 3 & 4

Vista I 2015 Acrylic on linen, mirror and wood H130 x W156 x D24.5 cm Installation view and detail

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TOP: Fig. 5

The Blue of Distance 2015 Acrylic on plywood Dimensions variable Installation view

One of her earliest ventures can be seen in the Vista series (Figs.

3 and 4), exhibited in The Blue of Distance, where her landscape paintings were presented in a mirrored box, extending the image beyond the painted surface. In the same exhibition, the white gallery walls were activated as the ‘background’ for her shaped wood paintings, approximating the void space of Chinese landscape painting (Fig. 5).

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In the series of plexiglass works in A Matter of Time, the discs and blocks have been mounted onto polished gold base plates. Inspired by the quality of light during the ‘golden hour’ and capturing a preciousness about the works, the reflective surfaces create a scintillance of colour as well as surprising extensions of the painted surfaces in other planes of the plexiglass substrate. In a small diptych, Sky Beneath Our Feet (Figs. 6 & 7), nestled in a corner where two gallery walls meet, the interplay of light and surfaces creates a shadow, or residual image just visible on the wall behind the painted plexiglass.

TOP & NEXT SPREAD: Figs. 6 & 7

Sky Beneath Our Feet 2021 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass H21 x W21 x D4.1 cm (each; diptych) Installation view and detail NEXT PAGE: Fig. 8

When Coasts Collide series 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass H30 x W21 x D5 cm (each) Installation view

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With When Coasts Collide (Fig. 8), Tan continues her exploration of the intertwining of space and surface first suggested in The Blue of Distance. When Coasts Collide comprises a series of five painted plexiglass blocks on a plinth, presented in a row to suggest a cross-section of a larger work, or a painting pulled apart. The plexiglass blocks were painted at the same time, with each surface informing the other and strokes from one block echoing the others, creating a constant movement back and forth while each surface maintains its distinctive contours. In this visual experiment, Tan jettisons the idea of a ‘front’ or ‘back’ to the work, making marks on all surfaces of each plexiglass block, including their sides and edges, and deliberately placing the plinth at an angle in the gallery to discourage the idea of linearity, or a linear reading of both the work, and of time.

Instead, she invites the viewer to enter at multiple points of the work, the eye traversing the painted terrain at its own pleasure, piecing together its own rambling narrative as a parallel to the subjective and multi-dimensional nature of time.

A Matter of Time is, in the words of the artist, an exhibition that rewards slow, meandering looking. Her plinths and pedestals have all been positioned to encourage walking around, so that they can be viewed from all angles. From some perspectives, the large circular discs in Opalescence appear like planets, or substantial orbs of colour; from others, they disappear into a sliver, like a slit in time and space.

Light plays a substantial role, in some instances bestowing a luminous transparency on the painted surface, in others, refracting off polished planes to create prisms of colour, and the illusion of solid form dissolving.

TOP: Figs. 9 & 10

Opalescence series and Anti-Matter series 2020 FOST Gallery Installation views

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Grounding these ethereal vistas are two works from the AntiMatter series (Figs. 9 & 10). Visually, they echo the plexiglass discs with their expressive gestural strokes; conceptually, they reflect a similar preoccupation with time, the elements, material or matter, and their fluid states. The making of the Anti-Matter works harks back to Tan’s subtractive processes – in this instance, mark-making by taking away. A corrosive liquid is applied onto the metal plate substrates, in a process the artist likens to “painting with invisible ink”. Tan’s statement reveals the fine balance between working with the properties of the materials at hand and the painter’s honed instincts, in intuiting when to arrest the process of corrosion by sealing off the area with resin. The acid interacts with air over time to leave its mark on the metal plate, and the different intervals of its corrosion yields a palette of varied tonal intensity. The encrustations on the plate’s surfaces are sometimes laboriously scraped away and collected by the artist – precious dust and shavings that can be further transformed into pigments to create new works.

This alchemy suggests new possibilities for painting, and the transformative potential of matter in its many fluid states.

A Matter of Time resonates with echoes of the processes and long-standing interests articulated in Tan’s painting practice, including the intuitive mark-making of abstraction, the preoccupation with light and colour, and means of challenging – and extending – the ground and boundaries of painting. Like the Light and Space artists she referred to, who experimented with the use of unconventional, often industrial materials to create their works, Tan’s ventures into materiality have yielded her a generative palette with which to explore – and extend – the possibilities of painting, and how it can inhabit space and hold time. Her forays in A Matter of Time and its immersive install signal new avenues for future, and further, exploration.

Tan Siuli has over a decade of curatorial experience with a focus on contemporary art from Southeast Asia. Her past exhibition projects include two editions of the Singapore Biennale (2013 and 2016), inter-institutional traveling exhibitions, as well as mentoring and commissioning platforms such as the Presidents Young Talents exhibition series. She has also lectured on Museum-based learning and Southeast Asian art history at institutes of higher learning such as the National Institute of Education as well as LaSalle College of the Arts. Her recent speaking engagements include presentations on Southeast Asian contemporary art at Frieze Academy London and Bloomberg’s Brilliant Ideas series.

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Lunar Ruminations & I See Mountains series 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass ( Lunar Ruminations ) Acrylic and resin on mahogany wood ( I See Mountains ) Dimensions variable Installation view

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About the Artist

Wyn-Lyn Tan

Wyn-Lyn Tan’s artistic practice is grounded in painting, and is driven by a visual language shaped through rhythm and intuition. Her paintings often build on the notion of ‘absence as presence,’ where the act of erasure leads to traces and residues that make visible the absent. She is also interested in the nature of spaces, both metaphysical and physical, and their evocative power. In recent years, her explorations of form, space, light and perception have led to works that question the dichotomy between the two- and three-dimensional.

Trained in traditional Chinese ink painting and Western painting, her work has developed a contemporary visual vocabulary that often straddles between East and West. Her paintings hover between nature and abstraction, occasionally slipping into the reminiscence of a Chinese landscape. Beginning with a sum of random mark-making, she works towards a place where things no longer feel arbitrary and the work takes over. What begins as a first mark can eventually be obliterated and washed over with a journey of marks that suggest a constant dialogue between artist and canvas.

She has been awarded artist residences with the Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing (2014), Herhusid Artist Residency, Iceland (2013), The Arctic Circle Residency (2011), and Fiskars Artist Residency, Finland (2007). Her works can be found in the permanent collection of the Singapore Art Museum, and have been exhibited in Singapore, New York, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and China, including the Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing.

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Artworks

Opalescence I 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass on solid ashwood plinth Ø50 x D1.5 cm (artwork) H90 x W30 x D21 cm (plinth)

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Opalescence II 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass on solid ashwood plinth Ø60 x D1.5 cm (artwork) H90 x W35 x D25 cm (plinth)

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Opalescence III 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass on solid ashwood plinth Ø70 x D1.5 cm (artwork) H90 x W40 x D28.2 cm (plinth)

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Opalescence IV 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass on solid ashwood plinth Ø80 x D1.5 cm (artwork) H90 x W45.3 x D31.7 cm (plinth)

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Opalescence V 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass on solid ashwood plinth Ø90 x D1.5 cm (artwork) H90 x W50.1 x D35 cm (plinth)

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I See Mountains 9 2020 Acrylic and resin on mahogany wood approx. H17.5 x W20 x D2.4 cm

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I See Mountains 10 2020 Acrylic and resin on mahogany wood approx. H12 x W27 x D2.4 cm

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I See Mountains 11 2020 Acrylic and resin on mahogany wood approx. H14 x W30 x D2.5 cm

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I See Mountains 12 2020 Acrylic and resin on mahogany wood approx. H11 x W39 x D3 cm

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I See Mountains 13 2020 Acrylic and resin on mahogany wood approx. H10 x W22 x D2.5 cm

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Sky Beneath Our Feet 2021 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass H21 x W21 x D4.1 cm (each; diptych)

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Light Years / Anti-Matter 2020 Patina and resin on copper H120 x W120 x D2.5 cm

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Blush / Anti-Matter 2020 Patina and resin on brass H120 x W120 x D2.5 cm

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Lunar Ruminations I 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass Ø15 x D1.5 cm

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Lunar Ruminations II 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass Ø15 x D1.5 cm

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Lunar Ruminations III 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass Ø25 x D1.5 cm

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Lunar Ruminations IV 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass Ø20 x D1.5 cm

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Lunar Ruminations V 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass Ø20 x D1.5 cm

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Lunar Ruminations VI 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass Ø25 x D1.5 cm

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Lunar Ruminations VII 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass Ø30 x D1.5 cm

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When Coasts Collide I 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass H30 x W21 x D5 cm

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When Coasts Collide II 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass H30 x W21 x D5 cm

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When Coasts Collide III 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass H30 x W21 x D5 cm

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When Coasts Collide IV 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass H30 x W21 x D5 cm

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When Coasts Collide V 2020 Acrylic and resin on plexiglass H30 x W21 x D5 cm

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Wyn-Lyn Tan A Matter of Time 16 January - 21 March 2021 FOST Gallery, Singapore Editor Stephanie Fong Writer Tan Siuli Photographer Wong Jing Wei

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Left: When Coasts Collide IV (detail) Front & Back Covers: Opalescence IV | 2020 | Acrylic and resin on plexiglass on solid ashwood plinth | Ø80 x D1.5 cm (artwork) | H90 x W45.3 x D31.7 cm (plinth) Inside Front and Inside Back Covers: A Matter of Time | 2021 | FOST Gallery | Installation views 77