Theory of my Art Practice, and it's relationship to Taoism
(From Oct 1999 to March 2006)

When talking about Taoist philosophy's relation to art, or Taoism in general, to a western audience , it is essential recognize that logical liner ways of thinking are destructive to understanding Taoist concepts.

The language of Taoism is written in a more analogue or holistic range of thought, which is something inherent to Chinese linguistics, where one character can have multiple meanings and it's intended meaning is gained by it's context in the sentence. This gives space for the existence of multiple truths which things. For example Rene Magritte's pipe painting which features the text,"This is not a pipe" points to our tendency to label representations, when in fact; as in this case, the painting is not actually a pipe , but an image of one persons impression of pipe. Similarly when, Lao Tzu in D.C Lau translation says "The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way. The name that can be named is not the constant name." (1) It is suggesting, that "language is a corruption of thought"(2). Thought is pure and language is a representation of an original, rather than the original itself. It is not so much that words are the problem, but the labeling process people use in association with words that lock things down a singularity of meaning. Imagine for example had the text on Magritte's painting said 'this is a pipe.' People would think it was a rather boring realist portrayal of pipe and might wonder if the artist was paid to endorse pipes for a manufacturer, and that the painting had more to do with advertising,or illustration than fine art.

Reductivest linear logical are dominant in our society and I struggle to escape it myself. The sensation is not unlike the switching between using your right and left brain hemisphere's, as detailed in Betty Edwards(3). Her theories about the difference between left and right brain function have some validity to me because through the exercises in the book they are, to some extent, testable They would have to be viewed as more metaphorical compartmentalization's of the brain rather than literal. I do not think neurology has come quite to the point, were it can make a physical correlation with parts of the brain with different types of reasoning. Never the less, I do think such compartmentalization does exist and is a real effort to cross over to a different way of processing information.

I do not agree with everything Edwards has got to say about drawing, as think you do need your left brain to make import decisions in drawing. Drawing is not all about making an realistic representation. However, drawing from nature in an observed way, loads your subconscious with the types of proportions found in nature, so that when you work directly from your imagination, or memory, you can reassemble these natural rhythms in a way that is useful for you. I would not go as far Leonardo has gone, with one golden mean(1-1.6), as I think there are probably more than one, and using a fixed formula is unnatural. He theories do have a great deal of validity because his formula works, and it showed that general human understanding of beauty does have a correlation with common proportions found in the natural world.(Leoonardo mostly used the human figure as his model).

Artist that have still been trained to draw, have better visual perceptions, than someone who does not spend most of their time looking in a analytical way. It's the looking part of the equation here that is important, drawing is just one way of enhancing your visual perceptions. The usefulness of drawing is not all about it's product. I would not call many of my life drawings art. I have always tried to maintain observational figurative drawing as a practice, but not necessarily an end in it's self. While understanding proportion is important, I have seen many a competent drawer (in terms of proportion); make observationally accurate, but boring drawings as there is no variation in the weight of their line amongst other things. This is often largely because they have become too fixated on the discipline of proportion, and do not pay enough attention to the other qualities of drawing. However thick and thinness of line, is one potential that can be just as important as proportion, because it creates tension and energy in a drawing. This aspect of drawing relates to the polarity's of Big and small. Manipulating of big and small can help create the illusion of three dimensional pictorial space, because of the common human experience of looking at landscape, where generally the objects near to you seem bigger than the ones further away. Hence people equate difference in size with expansion of space. Constructing pictorial space is a fundamental to the genre of Painting, where as graphic design deals with manipulating spacial proportions in on a two dimensional plane.

Making a painting is a holistic process drawing upon many experiences past and present, conscious and unconscious. The philosophy of Taoism seems a more useful way of making sense of a world where nothing natural is ever singular, it is always connected to, or relative to something else. When scientists make equations that describe the processes of our world they tend not to use numbers, but algebraic notation. This understanding of the usefulness of numbers coupled with acknowledgment of their restrictions in comparison to algebra, can be used as a model. If numbers represents linear thinking and algebra represents relative thinking, then we can go part way in agreeing that both ways have a use; rather than making one mutually exclusive to the other. As Katya Walter would suggest, taoism rationality "works like the dynamics of chaos theory, which can predict a trend without the exact details." (4)

Taoism has more in common to the basic laws of Western Science than it does to the Humanities. Many of the fundamental concepts in Taoism owe their origin to the observation of nature and are often in agreement with classic scientific truths such as; nothing is is ever created or destroyed, it simply changes state. In 1998 I saw a program on the ABC(5), called The science of Art, where a Dr Richard Taylor was analysising Jackson Pollock paintings for the quantity of fractals in his work. He discovered that Pollock's painting contained a higher percentage of fractals as he career progressed. He also revealed that natural objects exhibited a high degree of fractals as compared with man made objects. When he did a comparative study showing two computer generated abstract images to a random sample of the general public, one with a extremely high percentage of fractals and one with all the fractals taken out. The overwhelming majority of people preferred image with the high percentage of fractals. This sort of research goes part way in proving that their are patterns in nature that strike a cord with people even though they may not be aware of it on a conscious level. I was thrilled one day in my 2001 solo exhibition, when an unknown visitor said " I don't like abstract work, but there's something ...l like about these paintings." I cannot say for what reason, he like my paintings, but at least it showed that he was able to over ride his already existing dislike of the abstract genre and use his intuition rather intellect.

My audience is important to me, and I seek to communicate to them through my art. I feel a social responsibility to try and connect to the average person, rather than make work predictively to please the members of the arts industry. The person I try to please the most is myself, working on the assumption that if I find the work meaningful, then other people will as well. It is a matter of ordering the microcosm of your own world, in order to affect the Macrocosm of the world you live in. In the beginning of my art career, and to some extent even now ,the language I used was very Romantic. I define this term Romantic has attempting to evoke peoples emotions in order to create meaning. There are of course, problems with this type of language. In general, people have to possess a reasonable degree of emotional intelligence to be able to access the work. This type of intelligence is different from intellectual reasoning, and has more to do this someone's nature. People have radically different in their reliance, and preference in their way reasoning. I would speculate this divisions in methods of thought starts when people are in their teens and that it is accelerated and reinforced by the general education system, that encourages mostly linear thinking. As being emotionally sensitive is not graded in academic intuitions, it is not a prerequisite for academic achievement.

I became attracted to abstract work because it has less figurative labels for people to become fixated on. The theory being; to deny people labels in order to encourage them to leave their liner logical approach to paintings. If you give people objects they can identity too readily , they tend to simply spend enough time in front of painting to identify the images of objects, and leave believing that was only meaning to be gained from the painting. Where as, it is the way a painting is made, which is important rather what it is literally depicting. Georgio Morandi can easily be categorized as just a still life painter. But his works were not just about still life. His works speak about about humility and resonate the serene. I enjoy creating three dimensional space in my paintings because at least on a sensory level, people are enticed to look into the work. As soon as you construct the illusion of space, people naturally tend to see a landscape, so I decide to use this rather than struggle against it. Hence my paintings have an abstract quality, but always contain reference to figuration. I encourage people to find things in my paintings that they can label, but not positively identify "that looks like rock or a tree", or "this looks like a landscape." The blurring in my work is there for a number of reasons. These are: raising an element of doubt for those seeking figurative labeling, radiating a more organic feeling to the work(possibly more fractal like), and generating a resonating effect to indicates movement, which in turn refers to flux. This sort of oscillating, or vibration effect, exist in many artists works through out Art history, like the impressionist. In particular I admire and pay homage to artist such as Morandi, Michail Ranny, and Rothko. Making something uncertain gives it a more algebraic quality, where it could stand for many things. States of flux or change are fundamental to Taoist cosmology. Change is considered one of the only constants in the world. This is very similar to the existentialist ideas of "the only certainty in life is uncertainty"(6).

Harmony and beauty are the most common themes in my work. I am happy for people to enjoy the painting, at just this level; as it is the default language of my painting. For example the patron who bought my one of my favorite paintings "I dream of eternal resting place" 2003(Listed in my web site under the Paintings 2003 tab) Did not enjoy the painting because my intended meaning, which was about dreaming of death and the comforting possibility that this would give a respite from the trails of life. He liked it because he found it incredibly beautiful and it was very different from the other paintings I was producing at the time. It is very important to me, to make work that is accessible to my audience and viewing of it ,is a meaningful one. I myself have taken a lot of refuge and comfort in art particularly music. My desire to do that for other people is part of the reason why I became an artist. A lot my work was never intended to be about anything other than beauty and harmony, which in turn, tends to generate a sense of peace.

Creating harmony in a painting does not come by accident, but from an understanding polar opposites and the interplay between them. For example white is defined by black. The white in a painting will appear more intense if it is near black which is it's polar opposite and vice versa. (7) Big and small define each other. Understanding these relationships in simplest of terms, allows the artist to control the how the audience views a painting. Particularly with the introduction of colour, which has the power to affect all other elements in a painting. Colours complexity is controlled party by understanding two things. Firstly it has a linear relationships in the form of tone, and secondly it has circular
relationships in the form of hue(colour wheel). It is the combination of these elements operating simultaneously, that causes many application problems for painters. How I perceive and manage these elements in compositions is similar to traditional Chinese concepts of Yin and Yang. It is important here, not to see these terms as two separate entities, as one can only exist because it is defined by the other. They also propel each other with greater force, the more immediate their relationship is to each other. These principals are used in conjunction with Western understanding of perspective and colour theory.

My practice of Ba Kua Zhang gives me a physical experience of Taoist concepts which helps with the mental understanding of a simple but elusive philosophy. It also give me an awareness of Chi, or energy in general. When I am painting, after managing physical and visible components of the work. I then look at what affect the the paint has in terms of the energy it elicits. Generally if there is a awkward, or uncomfortable sensation when I am looking at a particular part of a painting, then I know that part has to change. This process is similar to correcting your posture in Chi Chung(Chinese Yoga), where awkwardness stressed tension must be adjusted until there is none so that the chi can flow through. Hence a great deal of time is spent in the studio looking at; how the painting is going to be perceived. While many people are not consciously aware of the energy in paintings, it still has have an affect on them. The discipline of training of Taoist martial arts has taught me a way of learning. My hope is to understand the language of painting in a fundamental way, such as colour, tone, form and energy. That only a strong comprehension of these fundamentals, that have gone to make what Painting has been in history, will I be able to "reinvent the wheel", and make what will be Painting now.

This is why it is important not to get fixated, too much by style, or the outward appearance of the work, or the name, but how the work is attempting to communicate. For example; Babara Kruger's work looks like advertising, and uses the language and style advertising, but is not advertising, it's fine Art. It is art because advertising along with it's capitalistic associations is the subject. Kruger uses advertising own language against itself. She does this so successfully, because she has the discipline of having worked in the advertising industry, and is so familiar with how the language operates she can subvert it. Many contemporary artist use the language of design, but few use it in a way that is actually saying anything of substance. If curators fail to see a difference between how art looks to how it operates, then design could easy become Art. I not professing that my work has all the answers, to notions of what is contemporary painting, but is still interested in researching what could be contemporary painting.

 

Edwin Kenjiro Gardiner.

 

(1)Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, Translation D.C Lua, Penguin, 1976 .p.57
(2)This interpretation of this particular verse of Lao Tzu " language is a corruption of thought" comes from my first Kung fu teacher Chris Bishop. He was teaching me a are obscure form of linear Ba Kua that is almost extinct.
(3) Drawing on the right side of the Brain, Betty Edwards, Fontana/Collins,1979.
(4) Tao of Chaos, Katya Walter, Element 1994.p.18
(5) The Art of Science, ABC television,produced by David Evans, featuring the research of Dr Richard Taylor 1998.
(6) The outsider, Albert Camus, Joseph Laredo (Translator), Penguin (Note:The sort amorality of the main character of this novel is something that is a characteristic of Taoism, and is an attribute that separates it from Buddhism)
(7) The Art of Colour, Johnanas Itten, John Wiley and Sons, 2002, p.19

 

I wish thank my friend Carl Looper for casting his theoretical eye over my statement.

* I would greatly appreaciate that if people wish to quote or used this text that acknowledge where it has come from.

Link to Edwin's interview at ART QUOTES