Editor’s note: Themed on “Chasing the Light”, 2025 CAFA Graduation Season kicked off at CAFA Art Museum in early summer. Surrounded by diversified creations, visitors may find that some of graduates chose performance to burst their inner impulses, some chose to interact with the space to build their visual tension, and some got inspired from traditions to bring about more contemporary creative appearances. More young creators are paying their attention to drawing materials from the life around them, trying to capture the multiple realities of emotions, experiences and thoughts...
In these cases, the collisions between individual experience and the external world, between new and old media, as well as between virtual life and real life have repeatedly inspired their creativity that may not be perfect but fresh. CAFA graduates who believe in “light”, follow the light in their hearts and present their initial explorations of “what art is” that have been honed for several years at their degree shows. Featuring interviews with graduates at Phase B Undergraduate Students Exhibition, “CAFA Graduates Who Believe in ‘Light’”, invites graduates to talk about their creative stories from a more microscopic and in-depth perspective, and we would like to share and convey the “light” in the hearts of young people through these candid and vivid narrations.
Neti Neti (A Neither-Nor Expression)
By Lin Tianqi, Printmaking Department, School of Plastic Arts
Actually, I chose to make lithographs when I was enrolled in the Printmaking Department at CAFA and I once wanted to create lithographs for my graduate work. It happened that I used a woodcutter to adjust the surface of board for my painting and the colors of plywood were revealed, which was more beautiful than any paints that I had ever produced. I immediately gave up trying to “paint an image” but I wanted to make the material itself become the protagonist.
Exhibition View of Neti Neti (A Neither-Nor Expression)
These industrial panels that were tended to be neglected, have been awaken though notching and polishing, their vitality used to be imprisoned by industrial suppression is released and they are endowed with the dignity of art ontology.
Experiments for Neti Neti (A Neither-Nor Expression)
22 independent panels are naturally formed in “dislocation” and the connection of natural wood grain transcends the intention of industrial cutting; the exhibition wall in dark red unexpectedly echoes the mineral-like color of these panels, evoking their dialogue with the rock walls of Dunhuang beyond time and space; even the five panels which are hidden due to the structural formation, confirm the “neither-nor” philosophy: there’s nothing in the absence, but the absence is present.
Details of Neti Neti (A Neither-Nor Expression)
“A Neither-Nor Expression” reflects my “original vision” that had never been realized, since the real creation refers to a process that an artist’s vision is “killed or reborn” when he or she works with the material.
Details of Neti Neti (A Neither-Nor Expression)
The essence of plywood is “neither-nor”: it is neither a natural log, nor a pure industrial product; It is neither a tree that grew in the past, nor a cold material of the present, but a carrier of life full of possibilities that exists in the process. I value it not so much as its physical properties, but rather the divinity of this mundane material in its humility, and it has the natural soul that waits to be heard under the scars of industry. It made me realized that the essence of creation is sometimes to let go of control and make the truth of the material revealed – as is the case with the material, and so is the artist.
Details of Neti Neti (A Neither-Nor Expression)
The core idea of the “Neither-nor” expression is very historical in philosophical and religious texts, especially in Indian philosophy and Buddhist thought. Neither-nor (neti neti) signifies the Absolute (Brāhman) that cannot be defined by any finite concept by constantly negating all perceptible, imaginable concrete attributes. It is understandable that it does not simply deny everything, but points to a kind of infinite openness.
The Creative Process of Neti Neti (A Neither-Nor Expression)
When it comes to “Chasing the Light”, the “light” I chase is precisely the indescribable grayscale at the “neither-nor” junction of black and white, which is not on the other side of success and failure, but at the moment when you let go of obsession. This light is never far away, since it blooms in the “neither-nor” cracks. I believe that the most profound piety of an artist is to make himself or herself the light of all things, illuminating the inherent spirituality of all beings.
Lin Tianqi introduced her works to visitors.
Lin Tianqi took a group photo with her mentor Li Fan and classmates.
The Portrait of Lin Tianqi
Text and Image Courtesy of Lin Tianqi, edited (EN) by Sue/CAFA ART INFO.
