The Twenty-Four Chapters： Eight Artists’ Contemporary Articulations Within the Flow of Tradition

“Twenty-Four” is not merely a number here. It represents the flow of time, the alternation of day and night; it signifies the cyclical shift of solar terms and phenology, as well as the ecological rhythm evolved over the universe’s long history. Nor is “经” (Sutra/Canon) a lofty, suspended dogma. Drawing from its etymological origin—”composed of 糸 (silk/thread) with 巠 as the phonetic component”—it represents the longitudinal skeleton of woven fabric, the warp, and the veins of flowing water: enduring, continuous, and pervasive.
If “Twenty-Four” is the rhythm of life, then “经” serves as the spatial anchoring of the rhythm within space, supporting an otherwise invisible fluidity. The responses of the eight artists within this field act as the horizontally traversing “weft threads,” weaving together a spatiotemporal isomorphism that leads toward the “classic” and the “depths of philosophical reflection.”
Undeniably, this is an exhibition composed entirely of female artists. Even if we have no intention of discussing gender, it remains ever-present. In today’s social context, “woman” is still frequently degraded into a market commodity or a token of political correctness—a universal label for commercial brands, gender quotas, and social buzzwords. Yet, discourse surrounding the “feminine” in the realm of thought has already evolved from a sharp blade of confrontation into a river that cares for, perceives, and acknowledges the “Other.” Similarly, a “female artist” should not be reduced to a visual “standing-reserve” swiftly extracted by the market and aesthetic mechanisms. This identity is not merely a gendered perspective; it signifies a mode of perception that transcends the logic of dominance and opens itself up to the world—not to conquer, but to let it be.
The works of the eight featured female artists offer precisely such a path of production: through a sharp perception of the minuscule, with a spiritual endurance that dives deep into narrow spaces and the daily intensity of time, they reconstruct the connection between the individual and all things. Governing the heaviest weight with the utmost lightness, this is not only a gentle yet resilient ecological narrative, but also a contemporary manifestation of Eastern wisdom. This is precisely the core that BTAP Space continuously seeks within contemporary art.
Pang Tao, Lin Yan, Zhu Lan, Zhang Yanzi, Gao Qian, Peng Wei, Xu Hualing, and Liu Ting—these eight artists, spanning over half a century of generational shifts, engage in practices that fluctuate and entwine across oil painting, ink, installation, gongbi (meticulous brushwork), the modern, and the traditional. Here, linear time is disrupted, and the rigid boundaries of mediums are dissolved; they are like distinct ripples surging and resonating within a vast, temperate, and inexhaustible river of culture.
Originating from the artists’ micro-labor, this “meticulous precision” is by no means a simplistic appropriation of the “classic,” but rather a restructuring of the foundational tones of Eastern tradition—an enactment of the philosophical principle that “unceasing generation constitutes change” (Sheng Sheng Wei Zhi Yi).
As the only artist in this exhibition whose primary medium is oil painting, Pang Tao—alongside her family’s (notably Pang Xunqin) century-long exploration of blending East and West—constructs the most solid foundation for the exhibition. Her work proves that Eastern logic does not merely dwell upon Xuan paper and ink, but is a visual thinking that flows directly through the bloodstream. Forming a visual intertextuality with her work are Lin Yan’s Xuan paper installations and Zhu Lan’s ink abstractions—though the mediums have been thoroughly reconstructed, their internal realization of line, qi-yun (vital resonance), and the orchestration of Eastern space are profoundly aligned.
Zhang Yanzi’s perception of life’s microcosm presents an introspective yet open psychological contemplation; Peng Wei appropriates the most traditional Chinese landscape (shanshui) paradigms to construct a private narrative belonging strictly to the present; Gao Qian and Xu Hualing delve into the most microscopic realms of silk and gongbi, broadening the boundaries of ink within a thickness of a mere few millimeters; Liu Ting, meanwhile, injects a contemporary tactility into ink expression through powerful expressive techniques. Searching inward along the most subtle physical fibers of Eastern aesthetics, those seemingly dormant traditional genes sprout like intricate plant veins, continuous and unbroken.
Extending from the micro-glimmer of the individual within an era to the continuity and mutation of the cultural matrix across time and space, the exhibition seeks to offer a perspective that transcends medium determinism and gender politics. Within visual clues of an “unbroken connection,” it presents the bodily resilience of both the artists and their mediums, ultimately culminating in a cross-generational, spatiotemporal polyphonic ensemble with an enduring Eastern consciousness. This is more than a presentation of creative output by eight artists; it is a profound response to how we might poetically coexist in a fragmented era through bodily presence and a profound reverence for nature.