EMERGENCES

From November 10 to 28, 2021

A first stroke that generates a second, two strokes that call for a third, and three strokes that give birth to the multitude. Such is the creative process at the origin of Xiaojun Song’s compositions, following the Taoist principle of genesis. According to Laozi, the Way or Tao is unique and generates all things in this world in the same movement.

Each feature has no cause in itself, its reason for being lies only in the continuation of the movement given by the previous one. From simple strokes, thread-like structures are born, which intermingle, intertwine, swirl and clash into larger architectures. The final composition does not precede any stroke, it is only the fortuitous consequence of their arrangement; and yet, it imposes itself to the spectator with a disturbing evidence. Abstract forms, illusions, landscapes take shape. Meaning emerges.

“The One gives Two, the Two gives Three, and the Three begets the whole world.”

(Laozi, The Book of the Way and the Virtue)