Into the Mystical Realm of Han Jianyu's Forests
Imagine stepping into a forest, not just any forest, but one where every tree, every shadow, and every light beam tells a story. This is what Chinese artist Han Jianyu offers us in his latest exhibition "Arrive Deep in The Forest" at the Guangdong Contemporary Art Center. Inspired by Henry David Thoreau's "Walden," the exhibition is a journey into simplicity, purity, and an intimate dialogue with nature.
Who is Han Jianyu?
Born in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, in 1981, Han Jianyu is a figure of intrigue in the contemporary Chinese art scene. A graduate from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, where he now teaches, Jianyu has carved a niche for himself with his profound and philosophical approach to art. His works, primarily large-scale charcoal sketches, delve into themes of nature, existence, and the human spirit's resilience.
A Bridge Between Cultures
For audiences, "Arrive Deep in The Forest" is more than an art exhibition; it's a cultural dialogue. Through Jianyu's eyes, we are invited to explore the universal bond humans share with nature. This exhibition is a reminder of our shared responsibility towards preserving our natural world, a theme that resonates deeply with contemporary global conversations on environmentalism and sustainability.
The Artist's Journey
Han Jianyu (b1981) was born in Guangdong. He graduated from the oil painting major of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2006 and 2009. He visited Paris, France in 2016 and has been teaching at the Fourth Studio of the Oil Painting Department of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts since 2009. He currently works at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Director of the Fourth Studio of the Oil Painting Department. His recent solo and group exhibitions include: "Westbund Art and Design Fair-Han Jianyu’s personal project" (Westbund Art and Design Fair, Shanghai, 2023), "Arrive Deep in the Forest" (Guangdong Contemporary Art Center, Guangzhou, 2023), "Shadows-A Bigger Cultural Image?" (33 Contemporary Art Center, Guangzhou, 2023), "Weltanschauung" (Guangdong Contemporary Art Center, Guangzhou, 2023), "Time Gravity-2023 Chengdu Blennale" (Chengdu Art Museum, Chengdu, 2023), "Durain·Durain - The first Trans-Southeast Asia Triennial: LEARNING FROM THE RAINFOREST" (Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, 2023), "The Curation Workshop II: Story and Structure" (OCAT Shenzhen and OCT Art & Design Gallery, Shenzhen, 2023), "Judgment" (Space Station, Beijing, 2019), "Parallel·Shanghai-International Contemporary Art Invitational Exhibition"(Ke Art Museum, Shanghai, 2018), "Han Jianyu Solo Exhibition" (CIGE2015, National Convention Center, Beijing, 2015), "Vision Order" (Space Station, Beijing, 2015), "Intervention" (Fei Art Gallery, Guangzhou, 2015), "The Power of Jungle" (Space Station, Beijing , 2013) etc.
Philosophy and Artistry
Jianyu's art is a testament to his belief in the transformative power of nature. His works are not just visually stunning but are imbued with a philosophical depth that challenges viewers to look beyond the canvas. In "Arrive Deep in The Forest," Jianyu uses charcoal on paper to not just depict forests but to symbolize the journey of self-discovery and contemplation.
Between Humanity and Nature
At the heart of Jianyu's work is a profound inquiry into the human-nature relationship. His art beckons us to consider our place within the natural world, urging a dialogue that is both introspective and expansive. The exhibition, inspired by Thoreau's reflections, becomes a space for contemplation on simplicity, purity, and the essence of being.
A Call to Consciousness
"Arrive Deep in The Forest" is more than an exhibition; it's a call to action. It asks us to reflect on our impact on the natural world and to consider a more harmonious coexistence. For American viewers, accustomed to the transcendentalist ideals of Emerson and Thoreau, Jianyu's exhibition is a bridge to understanding and appreciating the shared values that transcend cultural and geographical boundaries.
From Curator--Cui Cancan
Every morning is a pleasant invitation, making my life as simple as nature, perhaps I may say, as pure.
-----Thoreau's "Walden"
To this day, I have never set foot in any vast forest in the strict sense. I have walked along a river on the edge of the Amazon rainforest in South America, or looked at a dense black forest in the distance from a small town in southern Germany. But more often than not, on the way from the city to the airport, the deep woods and mountains on both sides attract me to stop and approach its depths. Especially in the evening, I always imagine how to spend a night in a completely unfamiliar forest.
Perhaps, the speed of vehicles passing by on the airport expressway, the world passing by at a glance outside the window, the rainforests, mountains, and fog on the edge of southern cities always remind me of several unrelated scenes: the humidity in Wong Kar-wai's movies And poetic love, the American soldiers lost in the mysterious East in "Apocalypse Now", or the wooden house and the time and space in lightning in Peter Doyge's paintings. They are intertwined, injecting more imagination into the depths of those forests: rainforest and witchcraft, islands and drifting, canoes and rivers, the East, naturalism, and the life philosophy of the Beat generation.
These imaginations were my initial emotional background for Han Jianyu’s forest series. Almost three years ago, at the beginning of the epidemic, during the months of being closed in the studio, I first started to notice the signs of spring in the yard. When will the winter in the north start to warm up? How many months does it take for white wax to sprout? In what month do almond trees bloom? It takes a month to usher in the real spring. The scenery before April did not change much, but as May approached, the entire nature became completely different. Countless tiny growths gathered into a colorful, staggered front and back, extended in various directions, and intertwined into lushness. Natural time is like an accelerating clock. There are several more moments, each setting its own trajectory, ushering in the four seasons of different lengths.
Two years later, and also a year ago, I saw Han Jianyu’s first forest sketch for the first time in April and May. The feeling it provided surprised me, it was like a picture I had been looking forward to for many years, and it was like The memories left to me from every nature, four seasons, rainforest, and dusk I have ever seen. It is a world I once longed for: it is not only a rare large-scale sketch, but also something deep in my heart. An extension of a certain emotion.
The huge size immerses you in it, and you reach the depths of the forest from the edge of the forest. It's hard to know the direction here, and you'll get lost if you're not careful. But you also gain a certain freedom. Time here is not rushed. It bids farewell to the noise and step-by-step rhythm of the city. It is allowed to be late in the forest. It has a special sense of stability. Your fatigue and weakness are all accepted here. You can pour your emotions into various plants, soil, and rivers, and gain the enlightenment of another kind of time and life. . This is another kind of life and philosophy different from the city.
However, these works depict more than just a story of "betrayal" of the city and introduction to the forest. It was clearly not the artist's final intention. A few months ago, I saw a Metasequoia in Hangzhou and wrote this: "There is a small Metasequoia on Hupao Road, which reminds me of the Black Forest in northern Germany. There and in Northern Europe, it was once popular to use copper engravings to depict the deep nature and the invisible. "Death, ghosts, witchcraft, lunar eclipses, wooden houses and the weirdness of curved boats" in the universe. The color of mysticism, stories of evil spirits in religion, witches and animals in the treetops, supernatural snakes and bats, shrouded in mystery Throughout the fir forest, marsh gas, rain, mist, half-moon, the light that occasionally penetrates into the dense forest, and the rotten leaves all over the ground are like the light effects and traces of corrosion on copper plates. But I can't tell clearly, it is the "death" of Northern Europe. The copper engravings and the forest stories in Grimm's fairy tales have shaped my prior experience of the cedar forest, or the cedar forest itself has some kind of elusive mystery that is difficult to penetrate and grasp." This text was written in Hangzhou, but the image at the time of writing, The basis in my mind comes from these sketches by Han Jianyu.
In these works, the unidentified, strange and mysterious artifacts are the key to the story. Sometimes, there is a snake-like object hanging on the trees in Han Jianyu's paintings, which connects the whole story like a vine; sometimes there is a monument or wizard's magic weapon placed in the forest clearing, which has an almost black metal texture. , inexplicable but harsh shapes; sometimes it is a logging scene, a shotgun, a small piece of sawn tree, a thick pencil, there seems to be some metaphor of natural reincarnation between them, the gun handle, gunpowder and pencil They all come from the forest. They are like the most classic story in Aesop's fable: a woodcutter asked for an ax handle from the forest. The leader of the tree was moved by his humility and decided to give an ordinary birch tree to the woodcutter. . But when the woodcutter made the ax handle, he began to cut down the entire forest.
These sketches by Han Jianyu reveal the dilemma humans face when facing the forest. On the one hand, the forest is a strange, mysterious and charming nature, which has a unique and sacred charm in European tradition. In the writings of romantic poets, the forest is covered with a fable-like mysterious veil, with a special aura that makes people imagine. Until the 1960s and 1970s, the rise of a series of spiritual and cultural movements such as the Beat Generation, the hippie movement, Eastern mysticism, and deanthropocentrism. The forest is no longer an object, but an object of study. It has a unique order and a growth pattern full of wisdom and aura. "Animism" has become a new metaphor for reality. Every leaf, every root, every piece of soil beneath the ground is worthy of our praise.
But on the other hand, the forest is dangerous. It has no human laws and contains unknown dangers, strange aliens, and cyclical destruction. The creatures in the forest are always inferior to humans and animals are rampant. It has become a symbol of the place of punishment. In Dante's "Divine Comedy", the dark forest symbolizes the error of being far away from God. There is no way out and there is no salvation. People must go through the forest to reach the way out from darkness and savagery.
Therefore, the forests in Han Jianyu's paintings are both secular and sacred. It is not only a sincere naturalistic vision, born from the place of loss and hope in modern society and cities, but also has some allegorical meaning derived from history and the dreamlike quality of surrealism. People lose themselves in this illusory but real forest, and then find themselves again.
Han Jianyu injects complex emotions into these "landscapes" and "stories". He meticulously depicts the intersection and path of each tree in the dense canopy and scattered forest floor. Every creature in the forest has gained A unique existence.
He spent the whole morning and afternoon using charcoal and rubber, looking for the change of seasons, the difference in every tree and every path, and then used this simple form to cleanly remove everything that was not part of life. It is the life of naturalism and mysticism.
The forest is particularly suitable for creation, and the fantasy feelings are endless. When you see insects and birds, the scale of its space and the human world, like the story of Lilliput and Giants, makes the imagination become fantastic. For painters, the forest has another simple and primitive emotion. A painter's love for pencils, plasticine and paper is like the clay in the hands of a potter, or the wooden harpoon in the hands of a fisherman. The same instinctive and simple emotion.
The sketches and paper give the forest in the painting a texture, which is what initially moved me and attracted my emotions. It’s hard for me to imagine that there are more appropriate materials for depicting nature than sketches and paper? Sketching brings these works back to their roots of art and nature, and the medium echoes the theme so appropriately. In the contemporary art circle, oil painting and acrylic, these media with a strong industrial temperament, usually dominate. They exist as products that are easier to sell and as the "masterpiece" that the artist finally exhibits. However, sketching is more private and self-centered. It is the unmodified nature and pleasure of the artist, and it is also a way to hone language. It is the most fluent expression of the artist's eyes and heart, hands and thoughts.
In Han Jianyu's works, there is a more wonderful echo between sketches and allegories of nature, landscapes, and forests. They form a philosophical thought about matter and nature, rebirth and death. Different from industrial finished pigments, pencils and charcoal strips come from the transformation of natural materials. They are natural products and crystallizations. Lead is a metal extracted from rock, and the wood that surrounds it is wood. Charcoal is a kind of energy conversion after burning. It has the same back-and-forth cycle as the rotting leaves and deposited soil in the forest. Therefore, these drawing tools have a mysterious and isomorphic relationship with the themes expressed by the artist, and the stories and meditations depicted.
In a world full of colorful and contemporary beauty, Han Jianyu provides us with a monochromatic world, which gets rid of the flashy and colorful reality and returns to the artist's simple and vivid emotions, returning to the distance from "reality" Far away in nature. In that mysterious forest captured by the sketch, everything is alive and life and death are endless. In other words, when Han Jianyu chooses sketching, he chooses an artistic stance, a retrospective journey that returns art to "nature" and "originality."
Black, white and gray are the only colors of this batch of forest works, which also give the forest a more mysterious temperament, allowing the story to be hidden in shadows and dark objects. And those twinkling leaves, entangled branches, rotting soil, and fallen trees lead us into the depths of this forest. An obscure world once again leads our lives to unknown, invisible and distant things. If we cannot reach the depths of the forest, if our curiosity about the unknown and strange gradually disappears, if we no longer believe in fables, and there is no longer ambiguous poetry in our lives, then what is left to us outside the forest will be the same and boring. , monotonous and empty life.
A Mirror to Our Times
Han Jianyu's "Arrive Deep in The Forest" is not just an art exhibition; it's a reflection of our current societal and environmental dilemmas. In an era where urbanization and technological advancement have distanced us from the natural world, Jianyu's work serves as a poignant reminder of the beauty and solace that nature offers. His choice of the forest as a central theme symbolizes a place of mystery, spirituality, and, most importantly, regeneration. For American audiences, this resonates deeply with the growing environmental consciousness and the search for sustainable ways of living.
Bridging Cultures through Art
The exhibition's thematic exploration of nature and humanity speaks to a universal audience but holds particular significance for Americans. The United States, with its vast landscapes and a strong tradition of nature writing and conservation, provides a fertile ground for Jianyu's themes to flourish. His work invites viewers to engage in a dialogue that transcends cultural and geographical boundaries, offering a shared space for reflection on our collective relationship with the Earth.
The Transcendental Connection
Drawing inspiration from Thoreau's "Walden," Jianyu taps into the transcendentalist philosophy that has deep roots in American thought. This connection not only enriches the exhibition's appeal but also deepens the cultural exchange between East and West. By exploring themes of solitude, simplicity, and a profound connection with nature, Jianyu's work echoes the transcendentalists' quest for meaning in the natural world, making his exhibition especially relevant and compelling for an American audience.
Reflecting on Our Place in Nature
"Arrive Deep in The Forest" by Han Jianyu is an invitation to embark on a journey of self-discovery, contemplation, and environmental awareness. Through his masterful charcoal sketches, Jianyu encourages us to explore the depths of the forest and, in doing so, reflect on our relationship with the natural world. This exhibition is not just a showcase of artistic talent but a profound commentary on the interconnectivity of life and the importance of preserving our planet's beauty and diversity.
A Call to Action
As we conclude our exploration of Han Jianyu's exhibition, we are reminded that art has the power to inspire change. "Arrive Deep in The Forest" calls on each of us to consider our impact on the environment and to seek a more harmonious coexistence with nature. For readers, this exhibition offers a unique perspective on familiar themes, providing a bridge to understanding and appreciating the shared values that transcend cultural and geographical boundaries.
In writing this blog post, I aimed to not only introduce Han Jianyu's work to an American audience but also to highlight the cultural, philosophical, and environmental themes that make his exhibition a timely and significant event. By engaging with "Arrive Deep in The Forest," we are invited to reflect on our own lives, our society, and the ways in which art can illuminate our path to a better understanding of the world and our place within it.
