Gladys Lin Projects Space is proud to announce the launch of Getting Closer - Hsu Yi Ting Solo Exhibition on May 7. This exhibition gathers paintings the artist created since 2018. It marks the first solo exhibition by the artist only displaying paintings, including both works on paper and canvas. These paintings were created across a variety of locations, from Fukuoka to Prague to Taipei. The exhibition also serves as a prelude to the post-pandemic re-launch of the project space. 

For Hsu Yi-Ting, painting has become a daily routine, similar to her narrative of life in  the journal, as she documents the flow of the environment, materials, and emotions she perceives. The viewers who have been following Hsu’s performances cannot help but wonder how these paintings connect to her past performances, and whether the action processes and inward activities behind them can be properly reproduced through a brush. For example, the artist herself said: "The core action is continuously approached in the process of recording the movement." Then, what can viewers approach? As spectators, what type of core action can we detect in the actors? 

Looking back at the artist's creative career, her language of painting similar to calligraphy has always existed. The strange thing is that Hsu never really explored this with others when she was studying art at school, and she seldom disclosed her achievements in painting to her peers. Only in recent years have her paintings been gradually exposed.  When we look at them, they also appear to be valid paintings. It is almost impossible to explain to viewers the mutual necessity between the paintings and the performance of this "performance artist".  For the artist, the creation of the two media do indeed penetrate and interact with each other.  Does the visual composition of a painting require precise background descriptions? 

Can this exhibition serve as a starting point for the liberation of the artist in her future creations, followed by the letting go of the established performance system for the viewing of each picture?  If the In the Process of Getting Closer exhibition is not regarded as a definitive announcement, but rather an invitation for artists to disconnect from the painting and performance ontology, what is the feasibility?  Or should Hsu’s painting be based on a discussion of conceptual painting with the purpose of exploring imaginary spatial structures?

The essence of art work is nothing more than inviting others to enter a situation, gaze at an issue, or perceive an imaginary path. Hsu's creations are filled with a light characteristic, which convey with a sense of paranoia those invisible environmental factors that fascinate her: water, wind, temperature, etc..  They are then endowed with a visually stacking relationship on top of a planar surface, and their interactions are defined with lines and colors. Inspirational painting is the performance ontology, and the images produced are transformed into an independent aesthetic entity to be re-examined and reviewed, just like the so-called figurative, abstract transitional nature of new paintings still enveloped in the physicality and readability of the artist’s body. In the end, these works are probably not accessories to Hsu’s performance works.