At Art Basel Hong Kong 2018, SCAI THE BATHHOUSE will present a thematic exhibition combining artistic practices guided towards the creation of intangible forms – creating an effect that leads to a creation of senses over material destructiveness. “Intangible Forms” seeks to determine an approach of today’s artistic enquiry that does not rely on rational contextualization but metaphysically which engages with reconstruction of aesthetics that have deep roots in the Asian history. Hints to complex feelings further emphasize the tendency of their artistic practices to engage with an intangible force of sensation. The exhibition features Lee Ufan, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Apichatpong Weerathetakul, and He Xiangyu.
Recently exhibited in The 13th Biennale de Lyon in Lyon Biennale (2015) as well as Shanghai Biennale (2014) amongst many others, He Xiangyu (b.1986, Lianoning, China) playfully explores social criticism with a refreshing humor and process-based approach. The artist describes abstract conversations focused on the expression of his bodily senses, perception, and the transmission of feelings. Castles (2017), a set of bronze sculptures made through actions imitating human and animal excretion, create unpredictable and unintentional forms - or “formlessness.” Dual-channel video work 100% Cotton (2015) playfully explores sexual sensation connected to perception of both sound and vision.
Through his first solo and inaugural exhibition at MIIAM, Chiang Mai, and Tokyo Photographic Museum, Apichatpong Weerasethakul (b.1970, Bangkok, Thailand) considers on the effect of geological deformation and destruction. Suggesting agitating movement of the earth such as volcanos and landslides, the artist explores the perceptive effect of “Active Landscape” in relation to illusion and visual hallucination. Weerasethakul’s new body of works produced in Pijao, Colombia, quoting the style of Colombian photographer Ever Astudillo, depicts silhouettes of men blocking the point of view, with unexplained suspense. In the film Memoria (2017) the main character has a auditory hallucination which progresses to visual hallucination, and sees geometric patterns over mundane sceneries – a form of spiritual or mental imprint.
Through understanding Herbert Read and his very notion of ‘haptic,’ Natsuyuki Nakanishi (b.1935, Tokyo, Japan, - 2016) devised his own approach to depict humans from a place of inner sensation. His continuous series of oil paintings with focused color themes in white, purple and green are drawn and painted with a paintbrush attached to the tip of a long bamboo rod. These paintings are composed of organic-looking forms that resemble cellular activity forming loose rings. The artistic origin of these works can be traced to his earlier works such as Rhyme '60 20 Mars (1960). His painting is akin to a topological plane with a reciprocal interpenetration of the visible and the invisible, or to use Merleau-Ponty’s term, a chiasm.
The 2014 guest artist at Chateau de Versailles, Lee Ufan (b.1936, Haman, South Korea)’s Relatum (2015), work composed of canvas, steel, and stone, is a remake of the original sculptural work in 1975. Relatum is a philosophical term that denotes words, objects or events among which a relation exists. Here, as in all his work, his deliberately limited and distilled gestures, guided by restraint, produce emptiness that is generative and vivid; it is this emptiness, akin to Heidegger’s “clearing,” that forms the substance of his art. Both Nakanishi and Lee developed a keen interest in phenomenology of Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, when they were younger.
