Yingyu Ke
North Sydney Boys High School
BLIND ME TO THE WORLD
Painting
Oil on canvas
“The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.” Andy Warhol Come with me on a roundabout journey, on a well-worn path I walked to elude a loved one's medical diagnosis. Let me bottle nature, archive catharsis by locking them in a painted stasis. If art is merely an expression of self, then my body of work represents the edge between optimism and escapism.
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the artist Claude Monet's landscapes.
Marker's Commentary
In the Romantic tradition, this evocative body of work traverses both the grand and the intimate. Symbolism abounds, as well as quiet reflection, solitude, reverence, and an indirect gratitude. The painting series acts as an allegory, replete with grand vistas, enormous skies, and a contemplative figure. Much like the German Romantic painter Friedrich’s Wanderer, who considers his life and the vastness of nature and the universe, this young man perched on a rock escarpment reflects on the real beauty of the vast sky, hills, and bodies of water before him. He is pensive and still.
There is powerful symbolism in this secular image and a quiet respect for the country. The artist appears to know this part of the land well, and the landscape acts as a self-portrait. It becomes the repository for the artist’s emotional state of being. The low mountain range, trees and rocks have been tenderly painted. Small areas featuring man-made intrusions remind us of our presence on earth. Intimacy and the personal are established in the small close-up painting of cloth with vibrant red and tartan folds. Each of the paintings offer a different vista, yet each is full of nuance and character. The strong, aging rocks encapsulate a wind-swept, somewhat fragile beauty in contrast to the serene and evocative land and sky beyond.
The landscape acts as a metaphor for the soul and serves as a barometer of emotional bearings. The painting conveys a sense of mystery and ambiguity. It is about finding harmony. What remains is a sense of both nostalgia and existential heroism, and a drive to find solace through the spirit and internal consciousness. The psychological dimension of the work sees the figure along with the audience reflecting on life’s experiences, peering both outward and inward.