Manchas Taoístas​ 

by Rubén Pose

Emptiness, we said in the previous issue of Dang Dai, was rejected by Europeans for centuries. In Western painting tradition, as Mengyun Han noted, it was impossible, as it is understood that a painting is a canvas completely covered in oil. By contrast, the Chinese tradition assigns an important place to the not-painted, to the empty spaces. Wandering Mind is born at the junction of these two concepts. Taoist´s aesthetic tensions, contrasts and movements of calligraphy, are expressed in oil on canvas, foreign materials, at least originally, for Chinese painting, which typically uses only rice paper and black ink.

The idea that the white is the white of paper, characteristic of Chinese tradition, is, then, in tension with the way white is used in Western paintings. Between these two alternatives, Mengyun have stretched the limits of materials and gives them new expressions: white, in its different possibilities, including that of the canvas unpainted, are examples of this challenge to go beyond what oil used to. In contrast with blacks, principles of traditional Chinese painting can be observed; Wandering Mind signifies by means of the dialectic of light and dark, of emptiness and fullness, of yin and yang.

The Wandering Mind series expresses this dialectic in multiple dimensions. American abstract painting created by a Chinese artist or modern Taoist painting which uses western materials? Identity and otherness are joined in these works. That which is represented only can be conceived by virtue of the unsaid. Thus, the abstract character of the paintings of Wandering Mind communicates with the possibility of concrete figuration and landscapes, trees, signs and traces that the observer might suspect. But these associations are not an end but signs that suggest us something.

In line with other aspects of the series, the title suggests a tension regarding the paintings: a scattered mind, wandering, yet thought-provoking, and that, eventually, will allow us a direct, intuitive, holistic understanding of reality. A wandering mind that knows.

These paintings remind of what is beyond us, which is not possible to represent. Wandering Mind can be understood, then, like a door, an invitation to lean out at what we do not know or even suspect.

Mengyun Han was born in Wuhan, China, just over twenty years ago. Her biography is marked by the encounter between East and West: she lived some years in the US, where she received artistic training, then in China, and now in Japan, where she studies Sanskrit and Indian culture. She has exhibited in numerous salons of China and the US and has been awarded several times. This young painter manages to amalgamate Western aesthetic traditions, especially in the form of abstract art, and the tradition of Taoist philosophy and art of China; a notable example is Wandering Mind.

Rubén Pose was educated in Argentina (University of Buenos Aires) and Spain (National Research Council). He holds a Master in Hispanic Studies (2008, Madrid) and a degree in Literature and Linguistics (2005, Buenos Aires). As a Lecturer of Diachronic Linguistics at the University of Buenos Aires (2003-2016), he carried out research in the areas of Textual Criticism, Historical Linguistics, Applied Linguisitics, Literature and Arts.

道之荫翳

鲁本·波塞

“留白”的概念几个世纪以来一直被西方当代艺术拒之门外。如韩梦云所说，西方绘画传统要求颜料须完全覆盖画布，留白则是绝无允许的。相比之下，中国传统绘画则与之不同，它通常会在画纸的重要区域留出一块，不着笔墨，作为“留白”。而作品《游心》，则是这两种理念交汇的产物。这组画中，道家的审美理念、挥笔着墨的轻重深浅与油彩、帆画布碰撞出了火花，以异域的绘画材料创作出了向来只青睐宣纸、黑墨作画的中国传统画。

与西方绘画使用白色颜料的做法大相径庭，中国传统画中的白色即为宣纸的底色，这是水墨画的一个典型特征。但是，韩梦云却未在二者间单纯地取舍，而是跨越了用材的限制，给予了它们新的表现形式。白色，不再是通过颜料画出的白，而是未经着色的帆画布的真实底色——这是对油彩绘画传统的一种挑战。相比之下，黑色的运用方式在传统中国绘画中有着明眼可见的技巧原则，而韩梦云通过明与暗、虚与实、阴和阳的辩证处理在《游心》中酣畅淋漓地将这种技巧原则展现无遗。

《游心》系列作品其实还在多个层面展现了辩证的思想内涵。比如，它们会让人疑惑，这到底是一幅中国画家创作的美国抽象画，还是其运用西方绘画材料绘制的现代道家画作呢？所以这其中同一性与差异性的交织碰撞尽在不言中。《游心》这组作品既有抽象画的特质，又隐含诸如风景、树木、符号、轨迹等暗示性的实物意象。所以其兼具抽象和物象，独具一格，非比寻常。

这一系列画作中的诸多元素与《游心》这个题目深深呼应，一同深化并突出了其蕴含的主题：杂乱垢心，游离彷徨，深思求解，终得大义。

这幅画向我们展现了难以明喻的身外之物，十分抽象。它的意义不仅仅在于让人理解画的内涵；而是在此之后，观者能够不断探索求知，获取种种奥义。所以引发观者的深思才是此画真正的和璧隋珠。

韩梦云20余年前生于武汉。她的生平充斥着中西方文化的相遇与碰撞。曾赴美求学数年，接受系统艺术教育；其后又返回中国；现今居于日本学习梵文与印度文化。她的作品在中美众多沙龙获展，载誉颇丰。这位年轻的画家一直致力于将西方美学传统，特别是抽象艺术，与道家理念、东方艺术的融合起来。而《洗心》则是这种中西融合的典范。

作者介绍：

鲁本·波塞（Rubén Pose）先后在阿根廷布宜诺斯艾利斯大学与西班牙国家研究委员会接受教育。他于2008年在马德里获得西班牙研究硕士学位，2005年在布宜诺斯艾利斯获得文学与语言学学位。2003年至今，他在布宜诺斯艾利斯大学担任历时语言学讲师，同时，他的研究还涵盖校勘学、历时语言学、应用语言学、文学及艺术等诸领域。