Overpaint 2
Xiang Liqing
向利庆
Production date
2012
Media
acrylic on canvas
Measurements
133 x 103 cm
Notes
Does the colour black represent nothingness, the absence of light, or is it rather representing the completeness of the absorption of the entire colour spectrum? Xiang Liqing’s ‘Overpaint’ series (previously exhibited in Shanghai as ‘Blot Out’) evokes the unnerving utter darkness of a total eclipse – the world we know is concealed by darkness, leaving only indistinct, shadowy forms. Xiang has layered thick pitch-black paint over a subdued grey background in swathes that appear designed to hide what lies behind them. Yet we might also think about the jet black of Chinese ink, used for thousands of years by poets, painters and calligraphers. Its darkness conceals, but also reveals, referencing the harmonious reciprocity of yin and yang in Daoist thought.
Accession number
2012.092