PAUL CHING-BOR.
Guangzhou, Southern China, 1963
It intrigues me very much every time when I have the parallel paradoxes in my
thought; watercolor painting coming from the conventional stage of being delicate/
romantic, then confronting it’s opposite environments today; and human as we are,
coming from the nature of being fragile/vulnerable, then crash into each other in this
ocean of human in our time. From the practice of water medium painting, thinking of
water this giving element, how it etherealizes into air; synchronizes humanity; and how
it carry color pigment, makes it’s remark on the paper… in parallel notion to human
lives.
In the body of works which share a common subject – 9/11, the works depict the after-
math of the event, melancholically post to event, not directly of the event. Perhaps the
mental states of the aftermath are more relevant, because we cannot change what has
happened, but we are still living in the aftermath today/tomorrow.
The practice makes me think of an ancient Chinese phase: “For killing the chicken,
never use the knife of killing bulls.” This is about the effort, and the capability in solving
the matter, both in a comparable balance. For me, watercolor is a kind of light knife,
like the one for “chicken killing” in the Chinese methodology. If it addresses the issues
well, and it is an outstanding heavy issue, then it would be “using the chicken’s knife,
for the killing of the bulls.” Entirely opposite from the said Chinese phase. In such no-
tion, one has to know the bulls so well, that to be able to execute it. In the end, it’s all
about competency and capacity, seemingly an important part of the art making.
ARTISTA
INVITADO
