Liang Fu: Ash to ashes 尘归尘

Ash to Ashes

Prima Materia: Matter in Flux and the Art of Liang Fu

Text by Vivian Xu

The physical law of entropy that governs material reality is not only an etiology of chaos—it is also the progenitor of transformation, rebirth, and continual reinvention. Artist Liang Fu has cultivated a practice in which such transformation is the guiding ethos, acting as alchemist whose work dances with questions of ambiguity and material cyclicality, urging us to hold space for multiplicity and to sit with the truth that earth will always return to earth. Through the transmutation of water, earth, and mineral pigments, Fu offers new perspectives where change ends not with a reduction to dust and ashes, but rather goes on as a process of endless rebirth—figures forged in fire like the evolution of stars.

Fu’s paintings exemplify the allure of forms in flux. Luminous figures and gauzy forms appear almost as landscapes, at once spilling out of and engulfed by the void. Evocative yet ambiguous, his flowing figures exist in the liminal space between figurative and abstract, sensual and intangible, transparent and opaque, eternally in motion and fleetingly captured—and, perhaps most strikingly, between destruction and (re)birth, as in the piece Eternal Blaze, where flesh ripples under an elemental stream that could just as easily be the waters of the womb as the fires of a cosmic alembic.

Yet more dualisms exist in Fu’s techniques, where the artist mixes visible with invisible and presence with absence. Enabled by the interplay of oils with water-based mineral pigments, matte and gloss together evoke contours in layers, blurring and reappearing within fluid waves. Carmine red, such as in The Residue of Tide and Star, suggests both the physicality of a body laid bare and the visceral vitality that lies just beneath.

Ash to Ashes brings forth a body of work that oscillates, where the in-between means eternal transformation. Fire, water, and mineral intertwine, at once an alchemical elixir and a metaphysical cycling of elements. As with the five phases (wuxing), elements are not static but cycle through destruction (ke) and creation (sheng). Among the works that embody this cosmic analogy is The Moon Bows to Pupil, where a luminous face evokes the final rites of Empress Dowager Cixi as depicted in Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor”—an enormous pearl placed in the woman’s mouth, the gem allowing her life to continue eternal in another world. What awaits is not the end, but merely a transition.

Fu’s Sediment series is perhaps the purest distillation of this philosophy of transformation. By dyeing crystals in mineral pigments—the same pigments that lay the foundation for his paintings—Fu reunites mineral with mineral and generates new synergy between material origin and material transformed. The sculptures that emerge are rich with delicate flecks and veins of pigment, evoking geologic formations and cosmic nurseries at human scale. Here, pigment and source return to each other in a microcosm of the cycles that renew the earth and its inhabitants. Dust may always return to dust, but Fu reminds us that there is beauty in eternal reinvention.

Liang Fu (b. 1993, Sichuan, China) lives and works in Paris France. He received his BFA and MFA from National Fine Arts School of Nantes in Nantes, France. Fu’s practice centers around the intricate interplay of corporeal forms, geographical landscapes, and the passage of time. Rooted in a familial legacy of antique connoisseurship, Liang Fu’s artistic vision is enriched by a deep-seeded understanding of historical aesthetics. Recent exhibitions include Holographic Realm, Hive Contemporary, Shanghai (2023); Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest: 10 Years, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest (2023);《星体燎原》corps célestes, Nicodim, New York (2022, solo). DISEMBODIED, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest (2022); Intangible, Nicodim Upstairs, Los Angeles (2022, solo); petit beurre, Maia Muller Gallery, Paris, France (2021).

Ash to Ashes, Fu’s first solo exhibition in Europe, third solo exhibition with Nicodim, opens at Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest on November 18, 2023.

尘归尘

原始物质：流动的物质与付亮的艺术

支配物质现实的熵物理定律不仅是混沌的源头，也是转变、重生和不断重塑的根源。艺术家付亮以这种转化为精神的实践，作为炼金术士，他的作品探索着模糊性和物质循环性的问题，为多样性保留着空间，并遵循生命永远会回归地球的真理。通过水、泥土和矿物颜料的嬗变，付亮提供了新的视角，其中变化不会以尘埃和灰烬的减少而终止，而是作为一个无尽的重生——像星宿变化般在火中锻造出人或物。

付亮的画作体现了不断变化的形式的魅力。发光的人物和薄纱般的形状几乎就像风景一样，立即从虚空中溢出又被虚空吞没。他流动的人物形象令人回味又模棱两可，存在于具象与抽象、感性与无形、透明与不透明之间的界限空间中，永恒地运动着，又转瞬即逝——也许最引人注目的是，存在于毁灭与（重）生之间，就像这件作品一样。永恒的火焰，流动在肉体上的元素，这就像宇宙蒸馏器中的火焰一般或者为子宫中的水。

付亮的创作中存在着更多的二元性，艺术家将可见与不可见、存在与缺席混合在一起。通过油与水性矿物颜料的相互作用，哑光和光泽共同唤起轮廓的层次，在流动的波动中模糊与再现。胭脂红，《潮汐与星辰的残留》中的胭脂色，既暗示着裸露的身体，也暗示着隐藏在其下的内脏活力。

《尘归尘》带来了一系列摇摆不定的作品，其中 ‘边界之间’’意味着永恒的转变。火、水和矿物交织在一起，既是炼金术的灵丹妙药，又是元素的形而上学循环。与五个阶段（五行）一样，元素不是静态的，而是通过破坏（克）和创造（生）循环。体现这种宇宙类比的作品之一是《月亮向瞳孔鞠躬》，其中一张发光的脸让人想起贝尔纳多·贝托鲁奇的《末代皇帝》中描绘的慈禧太后的最后仪式——一颗巨大的夜明珠放在女人的嘴里，矿物宝石让她的生命在另一个世界永恒。等待的不是结束，而只是一个过渡。

付亮的《沉积物》系列也许是这种转变哲学最纯粹的升华。通过用矿物颜料（与为他的绘画奠定基础的颜料相同的颜料）对晶体进行染色，付亮将矿物粉与矿物体重新结合起来，并在材料起源和材料转化之间产生新的语境。浮现出来的雕塑富含精致的颜料斑点和纹理，让人想起人类规模的地质构造和宇宙之源。在这里，矿物粉与其源头的微观世界的缩影中相互回归。尘埃终归尘埃，但艺术家提醒我们，永恒的重塑中蕴含着美。

付亮（1993年生于中国四川）在法国巴黎生活和工作。他在法国南特国立南特美术学院获得艺术学士和艺术硕士学位。付亮的实践以物质形式、地理景观和时间流逝之间错综复杂的相互作用为中心。付亮的艺术视野植根于古董鉴赏的家族传承，因对历史美学的深刻理解而丰富。最近的展览包括《全息之境》，蜂巢当代，上海（2023）； Galeria Nicodim，布加勒斯特：10周年，Galeria Nicodim，布加勒斯特（2023）；《星体燎原》corps célestes，Nicodim，纽约（2022，个展）。《DISEMBODIED》，Galeria Nicodim，布加勒斯特（2022）；《无形》，Nicodim Upstairs，洛杉矶（2022年，个展）；《外围》，Newchild 画廊，安特卫普（2022）。《月光正午》，亚麻籽项目，上海（2023），petit beurre，Maia Muller 画廊，巴黎，法国（2021）。

《尘归尘》是付亮在欧洲的首次个展，也是与 Nicodim 的第三次个展，将于 2023 年 11 月 18 日在布加勒斯特 Galeria Nicodim 开幕。

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