Following the artist on a passage of surrendering the self to uncontrollable forces, we are led along winding paths into another dimension of existence, where painting itself becomes a perch of the ineffable.

Shao Fan: The Perch of the Ineffable unfolds through research texts and images of the works, sharing on paper a space of mutual viewing and co-presence with Shao Fan’s practice. Perhaps it is within this dimension of co-presence that a trust between us and the works is formed, along with a curiosity toward the “Other.”If we attend more closely to what Shao Fan values as “repetition,” we find that they occur not only within each painting, but also across the continuous process from one work to another. As these unfold gradually across the page, we seem to enter a temporal garden, where in the midst of blurred meanings and uncertain glimmers, we may sense both lightness and shelter.

Within such a reading journey, Shao Fan’s practice may open up a “public site of contemplation”: centered on blankness and distance, it offers each reader the possibility of new perception.

Language: English and Chinese
Size: 28 × 21 cm
Pages: 115 (color)
Year: 2025

Photo: Wen Peng. Courtesy of The Pavilion.

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[About the Artist]

Shao Fan, Hao (art name): Yu Han. Shao Fan was born in 1964 to a renowned family of artists in Beijing, where he has lived ever since. He studied painting with his mother and father from a young age. For the past few decades, his artistic practice has covered and spanned various mediums including ink on rice paper, oil on canvas, sculpture, garden design and architecture, exploring the transformation of various materials in different times, spaces, and states of consciousness,