NEVERTHELESS

Stray thoughts in the night

Jang Jintaeg (independent curator, art critic)

What responsibility does art bestow up itself? This question and discussion is not limited to the creators of art. Art has always been a dual driver of change and broader sentimental solidarity. This dual drive existed to bolster both tangible and intangible outputs of art, but as individual artists experience and define this drive uniquely, art continued to expand in terms of depth and breadth. That is to say, there has always been an aspect of will and intent alongside the surprising lack thereof. Growth requires both order and chaos, and art has been no exception. Art arguably requires the action of an agent with will, but beyond its creation and willed intent, it becomes entangled with uncontrollable objects in the post-event.

The artist’s output that we call art occupies a domain of what the creator intended to express, but also the uncontrolled domain of what will be its vessel and embodiment - the matter of senses. Once the creator's will is sketched, what that sketch upholds becomes a matter of the spectator, usually in the absence (or minimized agency) of the creator. By the senses of the spectator does the artwork become complete. This sensory completion may be summarized in a single phrase or sentence, but at times it may require the most intricate oral virtuosity.  The point is that aspects of sentimentality manifests in markedly different ways, and this interrelationship of structures is not a topic of polarization; artistic sentiments regarding the work may present across a vast spectrum of dissimilarity. Returning to the metaphor of breadth and depth and its variables across creative minds and spectator consummation, this X-Y axis becomes a radial vector that opens far wider than we had previously thought possible.

Qwaya is the artist’s pseudonym, but I did not grasp its significance until I came face-to-face with his works; they have a mirage-like quality about them, effervescent and fleeting, intentionally maintaining a neutral distance from specific will or intent. If time alone can prove the meaning of life and existence, there are only two conclusions to be reached. The round space of life we call Planet Earth quietly hurtling through the infinite silence of the Cosmos has inhabitants that share truncated time in the form of night and day. Here, day is the space-time of primordial energy of shining light, and night is the space-time where light is obscured by darkness. Throughout history and prehistory, night as space-time has evoked deeply emotional responses among human inhabitants of the planet. Light is capable of self-definition, particularly with regard to darkness. Darkness existed also on its own, as we can imagine the state of existence pre-matter. The artist explains his pseudonym Qwaya as a combination of the expression gwaya (過夜-to pass the night) with the added Q from the English word quest. One’s imagination need not exercise much flexibility to deduce that his thoughts often carried through late nights, and that those thoughts eventually make it to the canvas in some form.