Viewed through the lens of transience, Hua Jin’s Don’t Look You Will See at Lonsdale Gallery invites you to slow down and meditate on a succession of ephemeral ‘moments in time’. The show is Hua Jin’s second appearance with the gallery since being featured in their 20th anniversary exhibition. Through photography, Hua Jin explores the notion of death, loss, and trauma in relation to Oriental aesthetics and philosophy. Hua Jin’s interest in visual meditation takes a refreshing look at the complexity, and subtleties, of the natural environment.
Installation view of Hua Jin: Don’t Look You Will See at Lonsdale Gallery. Photo: Megan Kee
Turning right at the top of the stairs, the first thing that strikes you about Hua Jin’s work is the immense scale. These prints are monumental. Using a 4 x 5 large format camera to shoot her images, Hua Jin is able to capture a sharp, grain-free image with overall better tonality than a standard DSLR. The result? Images with so much depth and detail it would take hours to appreciate them fully.
Installation view of Hua Jin: Don’t Look You Will See at Lonsdale Gallery. Photo: Megan Kee
Setting the tone for the exhibition are two prints from Jin’s “Double Landscape” series. Mutually contrasting and complimenting one another, the black and white tree branches on the left, and the bold fuchsia of the flowers on the right, read as a narrative relationship between life and death. It takes a few minutes of thoughtful contemplation to identify all of the subtle details in these images, reiterating the artist’s intent. While the use of season and saturation as tools for demonstrating the transience of life can be construed as simplistic, Hua Jin’s thoughtful execution of the subject matter—which creates an overwhelming sense of continuity—is enough to have a major impact.
Hua Jin, Double Landscape – Vine #1, 2015, inkjet print, 46 x 70 inches, edition of 5 (left); Hua Jin, Double Landscape – Vine #2, 2015, inkjet print, 46 x 61 inches, edition of 5 (right). Image courtesy of Lonsdale Gallery
The focus of the exhibition, double landscapes aside, are the works from the “Don’t Look You Will See” series. As an exploration in visual meditation, these works are influenced by Hua Jin’s study of Buddhism, with a specific focus on the concept of ‘bare attention’. As described by Nyanaponika Thera in The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, “Bare attention is the clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us, at the successive moments of perception.” ‘Bare attention’, or mindful looking, is a fundamental component to the production, and, presumably, intended reception, of Hua Jin’s work.
Exemplary of the parallel between process and interpretation, “Flowers” is one of the most visually exciting works on display. Depicting a sea of endless white flowers, this print is as beautiful as it is well-executed. But while the work’s quality, composition and subject matter are striking, any allusion to meditative contemplation is lost without a written appendage. Unable to speak without context, this work, among a few others in the series, are beautiful but silent.
Hua Jin, Don’t Look You Will See – Flowers, 2015, inkjet print, 84 x 58 inches, edition of 5 (left); and detail (right). Image courtesy of Lonsdale Gallery
Hua Jin’s process is an extension of her conceptual practice. Large format photography is often a slow and laborious process, and so, composing, focusing and exposing an image forces the photographer to meditate on a single moment. In many instances, this creates a parallel between the method by which the artist creates and the manner in which the viewer sees.
Megan Kee
*Exhibition information: June 22 – July 29, 2016, Lonsdale Gallery, 410 Spadina Road, Toronto. Gallery hours: Wed – Sun, 11 – 5 pm.