Xiaochi Dong

Dong's painted landscapes can be read as a reaction to materialism, as a poetic attempt to dream oneself into a life not dominated by material things and to imagine an alternative world in which other laws apply. It is no coincidence that he draws inspiration from "Wòyóu", the traditional aesthetic concept, the idea of the "spiritual excursion", and develops a painting that borrows from traditional landscape painting while pursuing his own path of actualization. All works exhibited here are inspired by visits to Kew Garden, his favourite place in London, and a fallen leaf from a tree that forms the starting point of his journey with a brush on canvas. In doing so, he reduces the colour palette, limiting himself to tonal values between brown and white, thereby moving what is depicted into the temporal and spatial distance.

In front of us, are trees and mountains whose forms blend with abstract ones in such a way that namable phenomena merge into abstract ones, thus opening up to the imagination. Obviously, he is not concerned with imitating external reality, but rather with empathizing in the Taoist sense, ultimately with creating a spiritual space between emptiness and fullness beyond worldly distractions. The emptiness acts like the "breath of the breath" (Francois Cheng), which creates a connection between microcosm and macrocosm.