The Nebula of Consciousness and the Universe of Vipassana: CHENG Chung-Chuan’s Paintings

In the history of human exploration of the astronomical universe, it was discovered early on that stars that are sometimes formed by “clumps”, and “nebula” are generally referred to as “Diffuse nebula”, which also represent the process of compaction and expansion from abstract to figurative at the beginning of the formation of the universe.
The philosopher Baruch de Spinoza, on the other hand, refers the existence of the universe to a single entity (substance), from which he differentiates between “Natura naturans” (God or Nature) and “Natura naturata” (all things, living beings and matter), equating God with nature. Creative power and the logic of life are, in a sense therefore, derived from the natural law, which is immanent rather than transcendent.
Aura, oil on canvas, 145.5x112cm (80F), 2010. ©Powen Gallery
Universe, oil on canvas, 130x162cm (100F), 2005. ©Powen Gallery
If we take this merging of the created and creation in the immanence to explain the subconscious, ego, spirituality and nature in Cheng Chung-Chuan’s paintings, it is indeed the process of transformation from abstract awareness to concrete forms. From the fluidity and spontaneousness of her works, one can feel, in her paintings, the “Nebula of Consciousness” creating lines which took the form of airflow, manifesting as the Universe of Vipassana through different forms of nature and living beings.
Cheng’s paintings sometimes embody and express through figurative “gestures”, such as plants and flowers, the silhouette of mountains, star trails, clouds, airflow, borders and lines of consciousness. They do not resemble specific plants in the real world, nor are they replicas or re-presentation of a particular natural landscape. They are the “flowers of spirituality” and “the Universe of Vipassana”. Comprehending the abstraction of Cheng’s painting through the compaction and expansion of the “nebula” is tantamount to savouring her response to the purely perceptual world from her mental activities and creative process.
Twilight, acrylic on canvas, 38x45.5cm (8F), 2016. ©Powen Gallery
High-spirited, acrylic on canvas, 31.5x41cm (6F), 2018. ©Powen Gallery
Intellectually, during her stay in Japan, Cheng came across The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Denis Murphy, in which she was deeply inspired by the concept of how to transform the subconscious mind into the mentality of self-regulation and motivation through the practice of mindfulness, inner beliefs and alignment, transforming abstract spiritual power into the power of actualization.
Gaze, acrylic on canvas, 60x49.5cm (15F), 2013. ©Powen Gallery
In terms of the creative process of her practice, Cheng does not make drafts but rather paints directly onto the canvas when her memories, thoughts or abstract perceptions emerge. Even though there are often elements of nature in her works, she tends to echo the inner universe with the outer nature in her paintings. Through perception, a “mental image” is formed, and this “image” (a representation of an abstract state of mind) is eventually transformed into a visual “form” (a concrete visual appearance). Without anticipating the final outcome, the initial “mental image” may alter and reshape in the changes of feelings, perceptions or thoughts, as in the case of celestial bodies and nebulae, form or reflect variations of colours due to the different magnetic fields, gravitational forces, radiation and ionisation from nearby high-luminosity stars, or change by the collision of planetary fragments.
Movement, oil on canvas, 45x53cm (10F), 2005. ©Powen Gallery
The artistic practice of Cheng follows not the form but emphasizes the process of compaction and expansion of life. “The distinction between Nature and Mind is not improperly conceived when the former is traced back to reality, and the latter so fixed and complete as to subsist even without Mind: in Mind it first, as it were, attains its goal and its truth.” Shorter Logic, G. W. F. Hegel. (Friedrich & Wallace, 1975)[1]
The fullness and richness permeated in her paintings is an expression of Cheng’s externalisation of her perceptions into a kind of vitality in her inner mind. As for her approach to painting, she retains a particularly keen sense of brushwork, especially manifested in the moments between forms, and when the volume and the background are about to merge. She employs an inwardly rotating style of brushstrokes to express the resonance or uses a painting knife or a fine brush to delineate lightning or fine lines resembling the body’s nervous system so that the objects in her works clustered into energy masses. They generate, expand, burn, crumble, externalise and contract, in a single cluster of cyclones, connecting and converging into the universe of the painting as a whole.
Hover, oil on canvas, 72.5x91cm (30F), 2005. ©Powen Gallery
Cheng’s paintings are often “partial” in perspective, with an expansive manner in terms of their richness in the resonance of fluidity and essence. The way she depicts living beings is usually expressed in two different ways: the first is a gentle brushwork akin to smoke, air and feathers, expressing the formlessness of life obscured in the sky; the second is the use of a brush dipped in paint, through the “robust” and “heavy” brushwork of dragging and dotting, symbolises the expansion of consciousness, which grows and transforms into the state of individual life in the universe as a whole and in the void.
Imposing, acrylic on canvas, 60.5x72.5cm (20F), 2014. ©Powen Gallery
Anthem, acrylic on canvas, 41x31.5cm (6F), 2018​​​​​​​. ©Powen Gallery
Cheng Chung-Chuan’s art reverberates earnestly her belief in the “freedom to pursue” and “a substantial mentality” of her life journey. Through the interaction between “the Nebula of Consciousness”, which is a reflection of the whole of life, and the “the Universe of Vipassana”, which is a response to the individual, the two are expressed as a dynamic unity of life, leading to a traversal of spiritual imagery.
Torrent, acrylic on canvas, 162.5x112cm (100P), 2019​​​​​​​. ©Powen Gallery