The premise of my study is that the values of Zen principles are still relevant and important, especially in our challenging contemporary times. It may be timely to revisit these ancient ideas in an ever-changing technological centric world. I believe ancient art and principles are still meaningful in contemporary times. In locating the art of Zen and Zen ideologies, I hope, through my research, to discover how the principles that may still be significant today. I hope to expand on and make viewers aware of Zen philosophical ideas, and to contribute to a new hybridization in an abstract painting practice.
Through this practice-based studio research, I investigate the role of Zen through contemporary abstract painting and my art practice in our times. In addition, I examine how these ancient ideas are transferred into the future and relate to nature and humanity closely. I believe that my art practice which relates humanity to the natural world, through Zen philosophy, is an ongoing condition which is beneficial to modern life and contemporary artists.
My research begins with selected Zen art that have influenced modernist and contemporary Western abstraction. This underpins the theoretical and art historical components of my research. Furthermore, I research contemporary applications of selected traditional aesthetic concepts and compositional devices in Japanese and Chinese painting and demonstrate their influence on contemporary abstract painting and my art practice.
The research seeks to contribute knowledge through the following enquires:
RQ1. How may a contemporary abstract painting practice research and extend Chinese and Japanese Zen concepts of ephemeral and transience states of being?
RQ2. How may philosophical readings of abstraction in the painting be used to extend conceptual methodologies of historical Zen art?
My studio practice expresses this research through painting, drawing, collage, and installation, and exemplify contemporary interactions of abstraction from both Eastern and Western cultures.