Guo Jin: Child’s Play
Guo Jin Untitled No. 3 2009 Courtesy of Gibsone Jessop
The paintings of Chinese artist Guo Jin look as if they are corroding and flaking to pieces. It’s an unsettling effect, given that they depict children lost in imaginative play. However, this merging of cruel reality with “the beauty of ideals” is deliberate. Those rusty-looking layers—the result of a three-stage painting process—suggest ravages of time that force the viewer to negotiate the discordance with the subject matter, raising a sense of melancholy. The children’s features are simplified through Jin’s straightforward brushstrokes that designate the children not as individuals but as stand-ins for childhood experience itself, ours included. Their indistinct gestures, made blurry at times by layers of paint, leave us to fill in the gaps and complete the story—adding complexity and narrative depth to an already enchanting scene. (55 Mill St bldg 4, Toronto, ON)
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Guo Jin Untitled No. 1 2008 Courtesy of Gibsone Jessop |
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