Using words as energy devoid of meaning

WORDS come into play at this exhibition, Autographic Matters, which features the collaborative and individual works of two Singapore artists and two French artists.

For two of the artists - Calvin Pang (whose artist's moniker is Pang) and Helene Le Chatelier - their collaboration started when they met each other through a group show last year. They learnt more about each other's practice and realised that their commonality is in their differing approaches to their work.

"I work in black-and-white and on memory, while Pang's works are usually white, and about impermanence," elaborates Le Chatelier. Though they may sound like polar opposites, it's not far in terms of questioning and personal interrogation, Pang explains. Le Chatelier adds: "We're essentially questioning the same things in life."

Their artworks "found" each other, recalls Pang. He was working on an installation of laser-cut leaves when she wanted to use a tree she picked up as part of an installation. The two works ended up being their collaborative piece in this exhibition.

The idea came then that Le Chatelier would emboss her script on the leaves. Part of her practice is to paint with shapes and lines derived from calligraphy. "I use the gesture of writing but the 'words' have no meaning. My purpose is to use writing as energy - how to write our own stories," explains the 42-year-old artist who worked with Chinese ink as part of her practice even before she came to Singapore a few years back.

In this series, she started out painting strokes that symbolised calligraphy and portrayed them in increasingly abstract stages, until they resembled the undulating lines of electrocardiograms.

Using that script progression, Le Chatelier and Pang made them into four moulds with which they embossed the white paper leaves which Pang had made. "The script or markings reflect the heartbeat and internal emotions," she explains.

And white, for Pang, represents not just a blank canvas, but also the colour of elements representing life and death, like milk and bones. In his practice, he has used media like talcum powder, eggshells, paper - objects which are white and not permanent in his site-specific installations.

For this exhibition, Pang's individual artwork is in the form of a book on his collection of prose and poetry written over the years. "I'd say that, this time, the work manifested itself as a book which is about the idea of searching for and going home," he says of the 500 copies put up for sale.

"Colours make you feel a certain way - but with white, it exposes everything. It's a reflection of how I see my art practice as a blank canvas for thoughts to manifest and also to give a break from visual stimulation," he says. The 30-year-old design and art-trained graduate is now waiting to do his masters in art therapy.

The works of June Lee, 28, were included in this exhibition because of her fascination with Chinese script - borne of the years she studied classical Chinese and found it difficult as she didn't know what it meant.

Her paintings are derived from Chinese characters, but they're completely abstract rather than representative. "In this series of paintings, I decided to focus on the form and shape of the words rather than their meaning. So the words are completely distorted, flipped upside down or stretched," she says.

Her watercolour paintings are done with masterful strokes, and though abstract, have struck a chord with collectors as four out of five of her paintings have been sold since the start of the exhibition. Showing promise, Lee will also be represented at the upcoming Art Stage Jakarta.

Syv Bruzeau, the performance artist in this grouping, presents two butoh dances as part of Autographic Matters - an interesting exploration which covers the "Three Perfections" of painting, poetry, and calligraphy - and intersections between Western and Eastern traditions.