Hua Jin: Conversing in the Passing of Time
FOFA Gallery, Concordia University
Montreal
February 24—
March 28, 2014
Artistic depictions of mountains usually conjure visions of enormity. However, Chinese artist Hua Jin privileges the small over the sublime in her solo exhibition of two vividly contrasting, mixed-media mountain landscapes, Conversing in the Passing of Time, at Concordia University’s FOFA (Faculty of Fine Arts) Gallery, dedicated to artworks by university students and faculty. Jin constructs intricate topographies that “create a mind-landscape” to explore temporality.1
Before exploring these works, I point out details—perhaps beyond the artist’s control or not of her choosing—marring the exhibition. There were no wall texts—whether signs, cards or arrows—to indicate the exhibition title, the artist’s name or the location of the display tucked in an elusive corner room. Although this cramped setting produced intriguing spatiotemporal effects to be discussed below, a larger room may have better suited Jin’s stated intent to explore the mental detachment espoused by Buddhism.2 Locational dilemmas yielded interpretive problems. The exhibition lacked captions specifying the titles and materials of the artworks, facts that would have enriched the visitor’s interaction with Jin’s subtle creations.
This omission of documentation might be justifiable if it were a deliberate aesthetic strategy of the artist or gallery. However, this interpretation is unlikely as the gallery provided information about the exhibition on its website and in two printed brochures. Unfortunately, these documents were easy to overlook on the gallery’s cluttered counter. The texts, by Jin and curator Sally
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