How paintings would have looked if they were forged by geological processes, you might have wondered? Well, looking at Su Yu-Xin’s exhibition presented by Albion Jeune in Venice the other week, made me think we could consider these as a possibility. Innovative, unexpected, yet unmistakably “earthly” and organic-looking/feeling, this body of work continues the Taiwanese-born, US-based artist’s cosmic alchemy practice, through which she rearranges earthly materials and grounds them into entirely new landscapes and environments.
I have to say that the art gods have been extra cheeky lately, as I first came across Su’s work in person only a couple of weeks ago, when I visited Longlati Foundation and saw her piece in their Shaping Color exhibition. The unusual format and the semi-analytical image stayed w me, alongside the notion that the work has been done by self-made pigments made from different stones, soils, shells, etc. So when I found out that she currently has a solo presentation in Venice, I extended my stay by another day and was glad I did. Displayed within the context of the world’s biggest art event, and next to the Grand Canal, the presentation felt like a quiet oasis that speaks of questions beyond human or Earth’s surface concerns.
Upon entering the ground-floor canalside space, visitors face the largest piece, a wavy rectangular canvas titled The Birth of a New Color (Mount St. Helens, Washington State), 2026. This piece celebrates a fierce tectonic event in which a new color is created by depicting an imaginary landscape painted on flax stretched over a custom-built support. The work sets the tone for the whole presentation, featuring hybrid forms made of different shapes and colors, from a range of sources and origins. Thinking about how things appear differently at different moments, Su’s imagery shifts between recognizable features of landscapes, shells, snails, or other organic elements and an entirely abstract conglomerate of shapes and colors.
Further on, by using self-made pigment or paint, the image might suggest one thing, but the material itself might be telling another, perhaps more important, story that isn't easily readable. The custom-shaped, round-edge supports are meant to emphasize the endlessness of views when observing a landscape. Rather than fitting it in the standard square, Su makes each vista a unique shape. The wooden boulders or plinths on which the paintings are displayed are part of that scene, extending the image beyond that format and allowing the viewer to enter the space. By displaying the work low to the ground, this idea of an endless landscape and an ever-expanding horizon is emphasized in a way that prompts the viewer to level with it. So, although appearing as sci-fi-type objects, these paintings/sculptures focus on the most primordial (subject) matter on Earth - the stone. Hence, Afterstone. —Saša Bogojev
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