High Seas
Shi Zhiying
石至莹
Production date
2008
Object Detail
Media
oil on canvas
Measurements
200 x 800 cm
Notes
‘High Seas’ reveals Shi Zhiying’s control of her medium. Stripped of all colour, her intention is to show the vastness as well as the unity of the world. This is a painting which audiences often mistake, initially, for a large-scale black and white photograph, until they walk closer and see the loose individual brush marks and the drips and dribbles of thinned-down oil paint. In 2008, Shi based her ‘Sea Sutra’ series of paintings on her experience of looking down over the Pacific Ocean and suddenly being overwhelmed by a profound sense of her own insignificance, a feeling she described as ‘ceasing to exist’. These paintings of sublime vistas remove all unnecessary detail, focusing our attention on the boundless immensity of the ocean. It’s an immersive experience in the same way that observing a colour-field painting by Rothko envelops the viewer in its shimmering glazes. In these works, we see the familiar (the ocean, vast expanses of lawn) in new ways. Shi Zhiying works slowly, often making several studies and small versions of a painting before transferring the image to a large canvas. With her very thin washes of oil paint she controls the drips and dribbles and stains of paint, always aiming for an internal truth. Shi has worked in monochrome for many years, initially inspired by the black and white photographs of Hiroshi Sugimoto. ‘Simplicity is reality’ she says. The artist initially likened her practice to the daily discipline of meditation, ‘a slow and peaceful process that takes a long time to develop.’ Later, she clarified this statement. ‘Painting is not meditation. Painting is painting. But it can be like meditation because I do it carefully, honestly and truthfully.’
Accession number
2010.045