REVIEW / 'A DIALOGUE IN BRUSHSTROKES'

Calligraphy, sculpture and chi

Story by CAMILLA RUSSELL - Photos by YINGYONG UN-ANONGRAK

Artists often infuse their work with a personal touch, using the paintbrush as a means to communicate with the public. However in a collaboration between Belgian visual artist Ingrid van der Heyden and Japanese calligrapher Wakako Yamamoto, their artistic signatures are expressed literally as each individual invokes the power of chi throughout their pieces.

Aptly named "A Dialogue in Brushstrokes", the two women's exhibition at Budji Living demonstrates the significance of the tactile coupled with ink on paper through a series of visual dialogues between the artwork and the viewer, and emphasizes the subtle emotions within this creative relationship.

Each piece dissects the internal struggles that govern every individual's actions and thoughts, wholly influenced by the power of chi, and ultimately reveals the calamities of human experience in vigorous brushstrokes and haunting sculptures.

"I learned traditional Chinese painting for three years, and to be good you have to feel the nature of it [chi], and you must put that power into each brushstroke. This is why I concentrate on every brushstroke," explained Heyden.

"China has made a big impression and is present in my work ... in [my] choice of subjects and colours. Chi is also known under different names in other countries, such as prana, a basis for yoga in India. In my work, I try to let this power be seen or sensed although it cannot be visualised," she clarified in the exhibition's brochure.

The two women met each other three years ago, each on their own quest to increase their knowledge of chi. This is their second artistic collaboration together.

I am very particular about brushstrokes. Japanese calligraphy is the art of line and space and also the transformation of emotional energy," says Yamamoto in the exhibition's catalogue. She returned to Japan shortly after the opening of the exhibition and was not available for an interview.

While the women worked separately and in different locations, the final result is an intuitive merging of calligraphy and visual representation. One such piece, entitled Cry, is a sculpture of a head with a mouth opened in a silent wail. "If you feel the sense of the body, than you can put that into the work, and the result will be much stronger," Heyden commented.

The dismembered body part is placed underneath Yamamoto's piece depicting the literal word. To see the head juxtaposed against the graceful brushstrokes offers a visual effect that is simultaneously vaguely disturbing and oddly beautiful.

"I don't want to decorate. My work is provocative and strong, but that was the challenge with this exhibition, because we had to hang our work together in an interior space. I think her work is classic, and that makes my paintings softer. Together we balance each other's work," Heyden added.

The other work in the exhibition is a pictorial demonstration of foreign languages fused together by the shared fascination and respect for inner chi. Heyden's sculptures enable the viewer to understand the emotion within Yamamoto's brushstrokes without having to understand Japanese.

Each piece of art is labelled with titles such as Unspoken, or names that speak more directly to the viewer, like I Feel and A Dialogue. The paintings and sculptures revel in the silent discourse of human emotions, and often seek out the beauty that is disguised in the form of loneliness or despair.

"I want people to comment on [our] paintings, and if someone passes by the work and they feel something, than I think that I have succeeded as an artist," Heyden said with a smile.

Therefore the collaboration between these two women can be viewed as an existential waltz, where shapes merge with shadows, and the inner dialogue of the human spirit is revealed through the universal understanding of chi.