Based on Lui Shou-Kwan’s Wood Houses in the Mountains, Background Story is one in a series of works by Xu Bing that recreates modern and historical ink landscape paintings in light-box installations. Though Background Story appears as a peaceful, idyllic landscape from the front, a look behind the piece reveals that it is composed of trash and natural debris, contrasting the historical landscape with allusions to the contemporary polluted environment.

© Helen Ting, photo: Maurice Aeschimann, Geneva

© Xu Bing Studio, photo by Fang Chao

In these two works, artist Irma Blank explores the relationship between breath and text. As if inviting us to read it, Dal Libro Totale is bound like a book. Instead of words and letters, though, we find repetitive drawn-out strokes, rhythmically punctuated by blank spaces. This illegibility repeats in Abecedarium with ultramarine blue bands that grow darker at the center, mimicking the spine of a book. So how can you read these? Simple. Breathe in…

© Irma Blank, photos by Michael Brezinski, courtesy of the artist and Alison Jacques Gallery, London

Impressed by the colorful water in Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan Province, China, Liu invented his zimo technique. Spraying water, ink, and colors on a large sheet of tracing paper and allowing them to mix spontaneously, he then laid another sheet on the top. When the two sheets adhered, the elements in between seemed to transform into rippling water. The artist then separated the two sheets, cropping and editing to make this fantastical and ethereal image.

© The Liu Kuo-sung Archives, photo: Maurice Aeschimann, Geneva

Liu Guosong’s Moon Series was inspired by images of Earth taken by astronauts on Apollo 8. Daybreak incorporates an actual image as a collage. These two works were made with the “Guosong paper” the artist invented by attaching to a paper’s surface the thick, long plant fibers that are thrown away as waste in the papermaking process. After painting on both sides of it, he peeled off the long fibers, revealing the white parts underneath.

© The Liu Kuo-sung Archives, photo: Maurice Aeschimann, Geneva

© The Liu Kuo-sung Archives, photo: Maurice Aeschimann, Geneva

The monumental landscapes of the Northern Song dynasty inspired Li Huayi to forge a unique personal style. Forgoing the panoramic landscape of the Northern Song, however, Li deconstructs the elements and recombines them into an abstract scene in which details are amplified. The geometric mountain-like forms are magnificent and dynamic. The crystalline details of the boulders suggest a microcosm, while the dark, deep creases in the upper center draw the viewer into a mysterious macro-realm.

In his photographic works, Beijing-based artist Michael Cherney embraces Chinese ink painting aesthetics, drawing upon traditional subjects, formats, and style. Captured here five summits from the mountainous area of Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province, China. The use of traditional paper as a ground and the scroll mounting format reinforce the work’s painterly quality. The grain of the photograph, too, takes the place of evident brushwork, both signs of an artist’s hand.

© Michael Cherney, photo: LACMA

Ravines, mountains, and trees creep up Huang Yan’s torso, then cascade over arms down to the fingertips. In literati ink painting, the human figure is often secondary to the landscape. Here, however, it looms large. As body becomes canvas, the title, Chinese Shanshui Tattoo, suddenly rings truer. While the paint has already begun to fleck off, it is more than skin-deep. The tradition of ink painting is indelibly impressed upon the artist’s heart.

© Huang Yan, photo: Maurice Aeschimann, Geneva