Jonathan Ching  |  The World, For A Moment

In his latest solo exhibition, Jonathan Ching once again presents a world of connectedness—whether with nature or within the tiny details that manifest along the undetected miracle of life’s simplicity. This inward process of reflection, of ‘seizing the moment’ pushes each work to new heights of figuration and representation that only Ching can provide with his deliberate, conscientious, and distinctive manner of painting, as if offering their own heartfelt dialogues to be able to speak to either the world or with the self, in expressing gratitude or in merely connecting. A subdued conversation takes place between each of Ching’s works, and we again stand as witness to this quiet unfolding.

The images of painted flowers open up this dialogue with nature. Though they may appear as a kind of universal language that is symbolic of beauty, Ching’s way of depicting them goes beyond the limitations of mere utterance, of mere reflex that simply compels one to draw. His approach to his paintings exceeds the casual glance involved in producing still life. Detailed, yet concise; faithful yet stylized, he paints to satisfy the inward-looking eye, the meditative and the perceptive. He treats the act of painting as if it was an offering—to something spiritual perhaps, or to the spiritual that is akin to nature.

The laws of nature stand out as the law of the living in Ching’s works. In these inanimate objects and parts, the dynamic brush strokes—layered and multi-faceted—bestow the breath of life within them. The pile of stones, the surfaces of barks of wood, and the shrubs that sprout along the fields become interconnected in a way, as if progressing towards an overarching narrative. “These paintings could be fragments of a unifying story,” according to Ching whose processes submit to the attention required to just one single moment before the totality reveals itself. In each painting, fragmented and independent musings might take place. But in every image, the whole of the story is also slowly revealed.

“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment,” quipped the painter Georgia O’Keefe, to whom Jonathan Ching acknowledges the immense focus and slowing down of time in terms of looking and observing an arrangement of flowers, and to whom he attributes the title of his show. There is not much fancy correlation or ambiguity in terms of analyzing the world and reality in Ching’s works. And oftentimes, in this age of multi- sensory experience that we are in, it stands out as a breath of fresh air against the jumble of different meanings. This straightforward interpretation —bold in its directness and wholly absorbed within the moment, is as immersive as any experience could get. It is in this particular world of Jonathan Ching’s paintings, where we are given the opportunity to pause and observe closely, and maybe find a moment of our own in acknowledging the wonders that reside in simply looking.

/CLJ

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