WHEN:
January 18 - March 8, 2025
WHERE:
Sean Kelly, Los Angeles
1357 N Highland Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90028
For more information and tickets visit the Sean Kelly website.
A spokesperson describes the event as follows:
“...Known for his experimental approach to photography, Chi-Tsung’s work bridges traditional Chinese art techniques and contemporary media, integrating Eastern and Western aesthetics. The exhibition features new works in Chi-Tsung’s signature Cyano-Collage series and marks innovative new developments in his Wrinkled Texture works…"
“...Wu Chi-Tsung was initially drawn to the cyanotype – an early form of photography requiring only basic chemicals and sunlight – in response to the rise of digital photography. For Chi-Tsung, what digital photography loses, and what his cyanotypes capture, is the medium’s openness to chance and its connection to the material world, qualities that make each cyanotype unique. Chi-Tsung’s renowned Cyano-Collage series synthesize his dual interests in Chinese landscape painting and experimental photography. This process begins by washing sheets of Xuan rice paper in photo-sensitive materials, which, when dried, Chi-Tsung creases by hand and exposes to sunlight. The subsequent abstract elements are collaged together on aluminum panels. The resulting images are open to interpretation perhaps evoking sublime mountainous landscapes or tumultuous seascapes. With their stunning formal cohesion and classical grandeur, the Cyano-Collages belie the inventive process of their creation. While Chi-Tsung conjures his panoramas through experimental photography, his use of the cyanotype process retains a connection to both the artist’s hand and the natural world. In this way, Chi-Tsung captures the spiritual depth of Eastern painting traditions dating back over a thousand years, while renewing it with a contemporary aesthetic.
In the new Wrinkled Texture Fading Origin series the diptych and quadriptych works begin with a single, full sheet of exposed cyanotype paper. This print then becomes the basis for recursive cyanotypes within the same work, with each image becoming the negative for the adjacent sheet. The result is a mesmerizing shift between blue and white tones, where the original image gradually dissipates into a field of color. This process captures the ephemeral and transient qualities of the natural world whilst also emphasizing the slight, irreproducible differences unique to analog processes. By double-exposing the paper and exploring the faded origin of the image, the Wrinkled Texture Fading Origin series reflect Chi-Tsung’s commitment to advancing the medium while preserving the poetic, tactile qualities of analog photography.
Wu Chi-Tsung believes his generation is the last to transition from analog to digital photography, a shift that profoundly informs his practice. Unlike digital images, where copies retain perfect fidelity, analog processes embrace subtle variations that reflect their individuality. In his Cyano-Collage series, breathtaking images emerge from the meticulous accumulation of numerous cyanotype prints, while his Wrinkled Texture works explore cycles of emergence and disappearance through innovative multiple exposures. Together, these works emphasize the conceptual depth, material innovation, and aesthetic sensitivity that define Chi-Tsung’s body of work…"
