The Voice of Nature
Review by Thalia Vrachopoulos
August 2013
Han is a multimedia artist who is exhibiting her nature paintings in this show. However, whether she is engaging with the painted idiom or sculptural installation, Han is usually dealing with the issue of spirituality and the transcendence of material existence. Consequently, when she produces flowering trees they stand as metaphors for the cycle of life and the transmigration of the soul, but can also be read as symbols of enlightenment. Some of her landscapes are bereft of blossoms and bright color as are some of the Voice of Nature series works that appear as snowbound areas of ice floes and other suggestive elements of icy winter. Although these are abstract works they offer their own possible readings; a ghost galley ship stranded on ice, as seen in Voice of Nature, 2011, (acrylic on canvas, 40×50") or, a partially destroyed city containing several vertical shapes read as buildings evidenced by voice of nature, 2013 (acrylic on canvas, 24×48"). The very shape of the canvas suggests a landscape by its horizontality but, unlike Dutch landscape that is usually ¾ void and ¼ solid, because the void stands for the spiritual realm, Han's void expanses are full simultaneously as empty as would be the spiritual path of Taoism. The Taoist paradise is usually represented with flowering trees and abundant rustic scenery as some of Han's canvases exemplified by Voice of Nature, 2013 (acrylic on canvas, 36×48") whose white purity is relieved by yellow mimosa-like round blos- soms. Another is Voice of Nature, 2013 (acrylic on canvas, 66×96") in which a blossoming cherry tree takes precedence over a dark city shown in the middle right side of the canvas. While the tree's trunk is rendered with sharp calligraphic strokes reminiscent of the Japanese master Yeshu Toyo, its blossoms are painted in soft pinks, fuchsias, and warm purplish reds. The blossoming trees are signaling the end of frosty winter and filling the air with their scent and the eye with pleasure. The pavilions of Chinese scholar gardens have been replaced by the crystalline forms of the city in the background, but are nevertheless as effective. Chinese legend has it that every woman is represented by a particular tree or flower in the next world. The color of cherry trees is much appreciated by artists and poets who extol its ruby tones; emblems of the fair sex. In another Voice of Nature, 2013 (acrylic on canvas, 20×54") canvas Han combines her eastern roots seen in the flowering bushes of the foreground and the white nights atmosphere of her adoptive country of Sweden. Here, the background sky is bright turquoise with touches of white containing small houses dotting the middle ground, while the city on the far right, appears dark, and densely populated with tall buildings. The foreground is full of pink and red flowers dispelling the winter chill. The Voice of Nature paintings are reminiscent of nature in their elegance, their beautiful coloristic symphonies magically suggesting
not only the return of abundance and springtime but also the return of hope.
Thalia Vrachopoulos holds a doctorate in the philosophy of art history from the city university of New York graduate school. she has curated over one hundred national and international exhibitions accompanied by scholarly catalogs. dr. Vrachopoulos is an associate professor of the visual arts at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. She has written scholarly essays and reviews for NYARTS magazine, Visual Culture Ad, part, +-0, public art, art in culture, art in Asia and sculpture, Wolganmisool, Asia pacific and has been included in many international panels. Dr. Vrachopoulos has co-authored a book on Hilla Rebay the founder of the Guggenheim Museum that was released in December 2005 by the Edwin Mellen research press. Dr. Vrachopoulos' contributions have been recorded in the permanent
collection of the Princeton Library Archives of Accomplished Women in the Arts.