Between Earth and Heaven

We are delighted to announce that FQM artist Chen Duxi’s art book Between Earth and Heaven has been published by Lighthouse Publishing (UK) Limited, a UK-based publishing company specializing in publishing art and children's books. Dedicated to promoting cultural exchange between East and West, Lighthouse is committed not only to introducing captivating Western art and children’s books to Asia but also to actively promoting Asian culture and art to international audiences. Between Earth and Heaven spans 254 pages, featuring a selection of Chen Duxi's works from 2009 to 2023, including high-resolution images of the artist's Vacuous Silence, Contemplate, The Order of Body, Animals, and Portraiture series.

The catalog also includes four scholarly articles and one self-narrative by the artist. Bao Dong's Shui Wen (“Water Patterns”/ “Hydrology”) focuses on how Chen Duxi unifies his paintings with objects using his line-drawing language; Feng Qing's Fight and Attain Immortality refers to Chen Duxi's oeuvre as the "modern copy of the classical mind," with their aesthetic inspiration deeply rooted in the timeless philosophy of the human relationship with nature; Wang Wei's Sequence and Refrain analyzes the abstract and representational elements in Chen Duxi's works, demonstrating how visual references from various cultures and times intertwine and integrate naturally with harmony and consistency in his works.

The second essay Distant Resonance, written by FQM’s previous art director and scholar Dr. Guo Xinran, examines Chen Duxi's 2020 work Hands and traces the artist's creative trajectory from 2013 to 2019. The author meticulously observes two works, Hands (2020) and Breathing amongst Beings (2019), pointing out Chen Duxi's new approach to handling lines: his wavering lines extend beyond formal resemblance to water, they become patterns on or within the body, shifting from an investigative gaze to a visceral feeling. The hand patterns in Hands (2020) still closely resonate with the flow of water, giving rise to a sense of perpetual pulse through the body in an eternal cycle of life, growth, and decay, underneath a seeming stillness.

The year 2013, according to Dr. Guo Xinran, was considered a turning point in Chen Duxi's artistic journey, whether in regard to its themes, painting materials, or compositions, as the artist repositioned himself in his negotiation with tradition and contemporaneity. The Daoist concept of viewing the world as an eternal process of change, as elaborated in the ancient Daoist classic I Ching, is closely connected to the artist's interpretation of his flowing lines. At the same time, Chen Duxi's works, such as Hands (2020) and The Order of Body series, offer viewers a unique viewing experience, evoking surrealistic aesthetics and relevance to the contemporary era.

Dr. Guo Xinran has been engaged in the field of art writing for over ten years, focusing on research in modern and contemporary art history in both Western and East Asian contexts, breaking the conceptual, presentational, and practical barriers of existing art history. She served as the art director in FQM’s founding stage from 2019 to 2021 and contributed to many scholarly essays and artist interviews on the programs at FQM. Her works have also been published in the English edition of Art Forum and on the Chinese edition's website (artforum.cn). She received her master's degree in East Asian Studies from Stanford University in 2011 and her Ph.D. in modern and contemporary art history from Northwestern University in 2018.

All articles and the artist’s statement in Between Earth and Heaven are presented in bilingual format, providing a more comprehensive interpretation of Chen Duxi’s artistic practices and helping to situate his artistic creations and philosophies in a wider global context.