APPEARANCE TELLS HEART
Written By Su Dan

The photographic works created by the contemporary new media artists-- Jin Jiangbo from China and Tim Gruchy from Australia-- are of views on nature within New Zealand. Within the other two months, both of the artists commuted between the South Island and the North Island, being indulged in capturing the images with the camera lens of the arrogant mountains upon the earth surrounded by the oceans, the broad and open land, the still lakes and the flowing clouds which are violently changing. These works present us sheer sights from which humanity activity signs are extracted. The artists filter the scenery carefully through the lens, and deduce the exposed, quiet, clear and transparent feeling possessed by the desolate region to the extreme. These pictures created by the techniques for photography beyond the human horizon and visual acuity bring us extraordinarily peculiar affection, which are distinguished from our visual experience but fit our visual imagination well. The creators plot to produce a super-vision image, and deliberately leave some clear and definite marks on the edge of the picture as well. Combining with the mystery owned by nature, the queer approaches make the visual and psychological tension of the works.

Precipitate retention of the picture is only the image of the relatively steady and everlasting objects. Time is the significant element for the essential change of observing, so browsing and gazing must lead to quite different sequence. Most part of the expressing subjects of John Walker, an US. painting master over 70 years old, are Seal Point where he settles down. He paints the greasepaint on the canvas repeatedly, as carving and polishing the earth mixed with mica fragments. Such point is more important to photographic art. A pretty large part of the works of the great photographer in the history, Ansel Adams, are about the scenery of Sierra Nevadas, which need chase and record the unique theme for a long period of time. Besides, outstanding and consummate field experience and dark room technology are linkages to inject time factors into the works. The constancy of people’s gazing is the condition of transition of the WATCHING essence, the instantaneity of the shutter’s flickering and closing is the moment at which the brilliant art work was born. Appreciating the works of JIN Jiangbo and Tim, we can feel the rhythm of their timing. The speed of the shutter seems to dismiss the time, but time gives some obstinate impression upon the photographic works as while. The vague and ambiguous shadow is just a pell-mell image which clouds and rainbows will leave after being harassed by the fluid winds. The involvement of time element mixes the works with some hesitating and swing emotion, widens the psychological distance, and moulds a heterogenic space type. Nevertheless, the finally submitted extraordinary image will return the watching process to the spectators.

Human beings are known not to contribute to the creation of natural scenaries. The every tiny wrinkle scattering on the surface of the blue planet has been more than fascinating to the humble human beings. Hence there are artists in the world who have dedicated their entire life time to shooting the natural scenes. In Mr. JIN Jiangbo and Tim's photographs, the human's trace can seldom be found, which have magnified the peculiar feature of the lands. The landscape of New Zealand is subject to constant changes with volcanoes and hot springs in the North Island and ice rivers and lakes in the South Island. In the North Island, Mount Ruapehu and the other 14 volcanoes around it have formed a scarce volcanic region in the world, while Auckland was formed after the eruption of ancient volcanoes, which resulted in its considerably diversified landscapes. New Zealand is located in the fault belt of "Pacific Ring of Fire", a high heat/pressure zone in the earth mantle after the collision between Pacific Plate and Indo-Australian Plate. The collision fueled the volcanic activities with sufficient energy. The repeated movements as a result of the energy release of the land and the tremendous earth surface changes including creation and destroy all have their vestiges in the landscape, including the chain of mountains, the zigzagging cliffs and the cracking canyons, all of which have their own rhythm of changes. For these two photographers, it requires perseverance as well as talent and gift to convert the particular geographic reality into their emotional experience. This is the ability to communicate with the nature and the intuition to capture the most splendid and touching moment from the rapidly changing face of the nature. The greatness of the nature rests in all the geographic formations and sceneries as well as the movement of atmosphere and waters. Here they have presented to us wonderful photos and more importantly the peculiar experience to look into the nature.

JIN Jiangbo once has an experience of learning traditional Chinese painting in the adolescent period, and the expressing way had continued to his graduation from the university. In my opinion, this period of learning experience has buried the seeds of oriental aesthetic modes in his subconscious, which is reflected frequently in the practice process of contemporary art he is engaged in. Although his works in the exhibition is no longer depending on brush, ink and paper, the spirit of Chinese painting in the photography works is sometimes visible. From the works we can appreciate the overlapping imagery of mentality, the conscious awareness of the East, a keen sense to the potential form of the text and so on. Looking back at the history of traditional Chinese painting scroll, it is not difficult to find that Li Cheng and Fan Kuan's landscape paintings respectively represent two different schools of north and south style, but the creative ways both are Eastern image creation which not only emphasize the subjective but also follow the objective image law. The picture, Travelers among Mountains and Streams, is full of the imagination of mountain cliff extending out of the valley echo; in the other work, Snow and Chilly Forest, the vast snow has obliterated the depth of the space, but it conveys the touch of bitter cold. In the composition of JIN Jiangbo’s photography, there is no lack of representation to the scenes which depict mountains cascading and stretching, lake opening and calming, also images of dense composition, which the upper part is the mighty mountains and the lower part is valley, waterfall, stream, clouds and forest. Compared with traditional Chinese paintings, his works are equipped with distinct skills, but inherit the ancient charm. In particular, a group of works, whose composition is round fan-type, is outstanding. The spectators are detached from the painting, but the edge of the screen is their horizon of vision. The traditional round fan-style composition is pursued for the purpose of enjoying, while the clear boundaries at present show the artist’s rational attitude, like an uppercase Chinese word "观(view)". This idea is also contained by Tim's work: continuous ARC fluctuate around the scene, which hints the aggrieved compromise between visual sense full of emotions and the frame of strict coldness of the photographer.

From the very perspective to "view" the image of the external world is primary for art. Through photos by Tim, we find that he borrows composition way from traditional Chinese painting. The application scatter perspective is techniques for liberation of scene. Stretches of land and mountain landscape break the mandatory border. "View" sometimes is a visual-using way, a special way to "look" exceptionally and carefully. The behavior of human’s "look" is diverse. From the expression in Chinese culture, we can find many words related to the verb "view", such as wait and see, observe, inspect, reflect, idea, and ultimate, which all consist of the word “view”, but reflect completely different meanings. Here I made these words  in order deliberately to emphasize the upgrade and insight of the viewing way. There’s no doubt that the photo-taking by the two artists are behaviors with clear idea. Changes of the perspective, viewpoint and visual field are beyond normal human visual habits and visual capabilities. At the same time the two artists are involved in active imaging process. To bridge and repair were the hard work of post-processing, which makes the images go beyond optical performance of the camera lens, stimulates  essential changes of the relationship between artists and also reflects the new position of photography art.
Appearance is something like external forms and manifestations. The wonderful words of the materialist theory in A Teaching Record say: "There are things first and then the feeling of the heart, and there is no heart without things." I think this is the extreme praise on appearance. To reveal and reproduce appearance needs emotions, which will be transformed and presented to be a new appearance by the artist. Landscape in New Zealand is Wonderful, where the sky and clouds halo change unpredictably. Hollywood myth movie Lord of the Rings selected here to be a shooting location on account of the fantasy-like surrealistic landscape, which combine majesty, solemn, immensity and disillusionment together. Viewing the very appearance with the very perspective is a Mahayana art state and wonderful art approach, and ought to get a get the very image.

The process of photography aims at an objective physical image, whose characteristics are accurate and clear. SU Dongpo, the literary giant in the Song Dynasty, wrote in the Pre-Red Cliff: The wind is on the river and the moon between the hills, which we hear as sound and see as color; WANG Shouren in the Ming Dynasty said: "All the things of the world were embraced by heart", which asserted and emphasized the independence of the color’s existence. The ultimate expression of most kinds of art rely on the COLOR, COLOR is the shape and state shown by the visual perception of object, and an artificial visual results. That the excellent landscape is discovered and reproduced seems to be the real functions and responsibilities of photography, but I think the significance and value of photographic art is far more than that. Through the images dedicated by our artists, viewers can feel artists’ sincere hearts. In Buddhism, heart refers to all areas of consciousness and other spiritual content, which is the opposite word of color. HEART is the essence of things, and it can be perceived despite its invisibility. LU Jiuyuan, the idealism representative in Song Dynasty, said: "The universe is my heart, while my heart is the universe." How to use the heart in artistic creation is essential for good art. Based on the above SU Dongpo's view, the eye is the way and one of the links to form color. Therefore, in the relationship which is built up by eyes and heart, the eye is a tool. But the distance between the eye and the heart is so close, almost close in an instant. The heart instigates eye hunting down images to show the public and convey the feeling of the heart; on the other hand, eye looks for images without a break that can inspired the heart. In the ongoing process as above and the temper heart becomes quiet. Artist's heart is not only sensitive but also open without borders. At the same time, the heart and mind of them can influence that of each other. "Color" is an important medium of communication between hearts.

But artists are neither saviors, nor preachers after all. They are just some of the extreme individuals; their works are often a result of practical action, with impulse and curiosity, invariably with a helpless sense of loss and questioning. Two artists’ works seem to try their best to express wide spectacles in the world , actually they suggest that people should be aware of such short life span as mayfly and such humbleness as the general drop in the ocean of human being. Such independent thinking relying on the unique form touches universal emotions and leads to the collapse of the secular insight. Human achieve to know themselves through constant introspection, so as to promote human’s understanding of the world and themselves, and gradually reach a consensus. An old saying says: "Lonely with the solitary light, liver and lung are as cold as ice and snow". In most cases, art works are introspective experiment and expression. Only under this kind of gaze can the inner world become keen and accessible. The photography taken by JIN Jiangbo and Tim is the expression of a sigh for life’s momentariness and admiration for the universe’s infinity, which is both a discussion about the relationship between large and small, and a deliberation about eternity and change.