Bernadette 's Recent research

FREEDOM of a TRACE, A TRACE as a SPACE

studying etymology of Chinese ideogrammes in order to question the intrinsic visual pattern, formed by the figure and the space around the figure- What and how such pattern of growth is to be understood, and how such understanding would perhaps assist one in entering a new process of the discovery of visual space, while making it as an inner reality or even necessity, thus applying it into a everyday pattern of seeing, and therefore of living all that we experience as something more than what is obviously grasped; the undefined and existing spatial reality that makes up the necessary background, without which such obvious reality would have found no abode .

freedom of a trace
a trace as a space

Just how you see determines how you truly feel the space

when you draw, draw not you superficially see., that is the obvious subject- but move around it with your inner energy until you could see and feel the subject as if it is You.

such an inner tour around the subject matter is a tour of an inner trace., and this, I will define it as an inner walking of space.

such a trace is practised through a strong inner belief that such an inner walking of space is actually how you really understand your own spatial reality, which, in a way, could override what the obvious sense of space is usally perceived- such as in the case of the use of a camera, with a perspective that is clearly defined.

such an inner tracing of space, when expressed intensively through means of various medium., such as the tracing of a black line on a piece of white paper, or the trace of moving around the subject matter with a dance movement, or a gradual construction of the various components of the subject matter so that the space in between is truly ' found', could in a way help you to truly find a visual equivalence of a sincere inner vision.

the motive behind such an inner search of an outer spatial manifestation is to lead you away from a too accoustomed 'obvious vision' that you had come to be too accoustomed to its being ' proper' or its being ' correct'- that is, the one sided vision that one usually is comfortable with in viewing as objects or subjects tend to hold together in a recognizable vision of a long history of printed images., such as photograhic images of a normal perspective.

so the question is not how you represent the subject matter from such a comfortable vision, but how you rise above such a comfortable vision in order to find the inner vision , which, I believe, is as true, if not more, than the habitual outer vision.

the reason why I tend to believe its sincere equvialence of an obvious outer vision is due to one practice: the writing of chinese ideogrammes . Because when you write, you care as much the space in between the lines as the lines themselves. So you write the first line, then the second, the then third in order to form the recognizable character, but actually in your inner vision, you are more concerned with how the first line will determine the position of the second line ( meaning that you are very conscious of the space created by the first line you just put down on that piece of paper, for instance), then you are just concerned about the quality of the line itself. Then when you do put the third line, you have a choice of making the character endowed with a different feelings simply by placing it closer or further away from the first two lines you have just formed previously. Such a difference in leaving an emotional impact simply by moving the third line in a different spatial setting means it is not so much the line that creates such an impact, but it is the space that the third line has created around itself that determines the final impact or, how the third line influences the visual impact left by the first two lines previously by making a final statement of the quality of the character made only by three lines.

in the beginning when I began to incorporate the element of chinese calligraphy in my research of pictorial image, begun in 1982, I had to unlearn my habitual way of seeing chinese character as being a recognizable one as opposed to an unrecognizable one ( as I am Chinese and have learned how to write Chinese ideogrammes since I was little ). It took tremendous visual effort to undo my preconceived aesthetic learned throughout my upbringing as one tends to be comfortable with a character written well in the sense of a well composed image, being innately convinced such a criteria being the ' unquestioned ' one- I mean- in this case, no one is to be blamed since a character written this way or that way could mean differently in the sense that it might be mistaken for another charcater if not properly written as according to the normal way of how the lines are to be composed.

so what I had tried then was to concentrate on the abstract quality of how each line is placed on the piece of paper, or on canvas (when such conscious effort of undoing my habitual way of understanding chinese ideogrammes by using western paint and colors became the principle motive of such a visual research- the incorporation of eastern and western visual elements through the inspiration of using chinese ideogrammes, as a chinese who is trained as much in the west as in the east in the practice of visual language ) ( Note: that, the visual language in the eastern sense here is relatedly primarily on the intrinsic visual pattern found in the Chinese writing process and it is assumed that the person who does such practice has perhaps unconsciously grasped a sense of spatial understanding foreign to him, yet crucial in the first person who had come to discover the secret of Nature, and thereby translated it in a form that bears his first understanding )

therefore, it is not a surprise to see color lines across canvases in various weight, sometimes heavy in the beginning and light at the end, or any kind of combination in between. That way of conciously placing the lines that looked sponatneous 'with a one go without error attitude' became then my constant practice, as if there was nothing more precious than such a spontaneous effort of overcoming preconceived notion of forming a recognizable character., and as a matter of fact, I had actually ' forgotten' the idea of putting lines 'rationally' in order that they be recognizable as a character -ideogramme formation.

years passed and at one point I did come back to put all recognizable character-ideogrammes together, perhaps as an inevitable outcome after all those years of placing lines on canvases casually and spontaneously- I mean- one would think, by now, perhaps I could just write those chinese ideogrammes on canvases with colors without worrying anymore if the abstract quality of each line is taken care of accordingly . It has been assumed that one could just go along in the making after years of such self-training without problem, I mean, before it used to be the problem of making each line endowed with a truly beautiful abstract quality, and now, it is only a matter of making all these true qualitied lines meet, put together as ideogrammes, even as recognizable ideogrammes.

then somehow something went wrong. The meeting of lines, even of quality do not override the true intension- the one which I gave to myself when I first tackled the problem of unlearning the habitual vision and how by unlearning, one would sooner or later come to a new understanding, in this case, the putting of abstract qualitied lines in a new visual manner, as powerful as each abstract qualitied line itself.

such an impasse , therefore, is due mainly to my previous training of what I was instructed to believe what is meant to be a truly beautiful , well written ideogramme. I saw those works that were less laden with this innate preoccupation came out better. But those were the works done with the intention of putting down the lines without worrying whether they would form a recognizable ideogramme.

Then one day I went back to drawing, simply drawing, in the western aesthetic sense. As I drew, I noticed my way of feeling around the form as well as the way I took care of the details, especially those non obvious space.

Then when I began to write Chinese ideogrammes again, this time without thinking whether they were well written or not as according to the normal standard of aesthetic, I noticed something which I had not noticed before- that I, after years of reading and writing ideogrammes, must have come to a grasp of visual relationship, perhaps different from, an art student that is trained in western pictorial tradition ( though I am also one of them)- so I pondered and came to this conclusion- that the reason why I consider those works done some ten years ago, with colorful ideogrammes written on canvases did not carry a maximum visual impact has the following reason-- that I have forgotten the inner vision of going around each line as a vision that is true as well as innate.

Because what makes a vision true , especially an innate vision is that the vision is not made by a superficial borrowing , but one which is grown in you through the ages ( in this sense, from childhood to adulthood ). Such a vision is a practice that one does without perhaps one ever knowing one is able to possess, and therefore has perhaps left it aside and therefore, leaving it there, undeveloped.

I had forgotten that I do innately feel the space differently ( in the sense that I am more opted to feel the interrelationship of lines than just the lines themselves, for instance ). So the unpleasing results of those big ideogrammes written on canvases being not to their highest spiritual standard was due to the fact that I had forgotten such an innate sense of spatial trace could be the solution to such pictorial problem.

I had relied too much on a superficial borrowing of western training in order to solve a could have been highly satisfying spiritual expression, in the sense that I could have come to reconcile with myself without effort by just letting such innate sense of relating all the elements as one of the unifying factors of this research that began in 1982, and in a way stopped when I came back to Italy in 2003.

As a matter of fact, I did stop doing any research, and for a few years I even did not do any more works.

But the stopping and the restarting had an outcome: I see myself perceiving the way of making pictures differently.

I began as a beginning student.
I went back to draw like a beignning student.
I began to write Chinese calligraphy again, like a new learner.
Had I not gone back to such a beginnning way of image making, I would have never thought that there is this innate vision that I still need to explore.

So this is the space of inner trace.
I believe its exists, and is as important as the outward embodiment of matter.

This will be my next stage of experiment- how the third line would determine the impact of the whole.

written on 20 of December, 2013