A moment is commonly used to describe a point in time or a fleeting instantaneity. I have chosen it as the title of artist Elaine Chiu's first solo exhibition in Shenzhen based on my understanding of her technique, format, style and theme. Her work captures different points of time in things and scenes around her. It expresses and represents the voice of the younger generation of Hong Kong artists in the time of AI.
In the AI era, technologies bring about convenience and innovation. Art, in return, empowers technology with meaning and warmth. As an artist of this new age, Elaine faces a new world constructed by AI-generated images and challenged by booming technological intelligence. This phenomenon inspires her to explore the intertwined painting languages of the traditional and the virtual, experimenting with her brushstrokes and textures.
Elaine excels in capturing inspiration from different urban spaces and timely moments. Under the context of AI, she introduces a new aesthetic pursuit and exploration of her generation. Her work displays not only the moments and fragmentations of multicultural urban integration from an observational perspective but it also incorporates her inner emotions and experiences.
In her practice, on one hand, Elaine insists on utilising the inherent materialities of painting, which is evident in her brushstrokes and textures. Facing the challenges of the rapidly evolving generative AI technology, on the other hand, Elaine attempts to explore the meaning and value of traditions and AI in her paintings on canvases.
Her unique mosaic visual language composed of digital pixels and painting blocks deconstructs the visual rhythm of contemporary urban landscapes, streets and signboards. The relationship between tradition and modernity, virtuality and reality in the AI era are explored in her work, showing the changes and new balances of cities, society and humanity.
The approach of decoding urban landscapes into abstract digital pixels encapsulates each painting block with different powers and DNA. Her method of extraction reduces the naturalistic and descriptive details of any specific urban landscape, giving her pictures an illusory feeling. It allows the audience to quickly feel the charm and spirit of her work, entering the imaginative area as she takes us.
Since the Renaissance, there have been numerous urban landscape and history painters. In their works, we can view the changes in cities and the evolution of civilisation. These artworks must be painted in a naturalistic manner to visualise a point in time. To them, urban landscape is the theme as well as the subject matter that requires attention to specific details. However, in Elaine’s urban landscapes, it becomes different. If I have to define her style, in my opinion, she is painting her unique abstract realism language with a touch of contemporary expressionism, that aims to eliminate details under the AI era and her time.
Chen Xiangbo
Vice President of China Gongbi Painting Society
Doctoral Supervisor, City University of Macau
Vice Chairman of Guangdong Artists Association
Chairman of Shenzhen Artists Association
May 23, 2024
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