Otherworlds: fuchsia

Otherworlds by fuchsia
10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong
Exhibition Period: 16 November, 2023 – 12 January, 2024

HONG KONG November 2023 -- 10 Chancery Lane Gallery is proud to present the inaugural exhibition in Hong Kong of artist “fuchsia.” Entitled, “Otherworlds” artist fuchsia will exhibit a series of paintings on canvas and on paper and will paint murals on the walls of the gallery. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong, where she grew up from the ages of 2 to 12.

 

fuchsia is a mixed-media artist currently in residency at Sarabande (the Alexander McQueen Foundation) in London. Working primarily with watercolour and oils, she explores concepts of good and evil through carefully selected colour palettes and spiritual iconography. fuchsia paints angels and underwater creatures in dream-like landscapes and fervently believes in the power of these celestial beings. In her eyes, angels represent the deepest state of our core as humans - love, vulnerability and innocence - all things we regrettably gradually let go of when entering adulthood. her paintings are overflowing with symbols of beauty and chaos, and aim to highlight certain conflicting moral forces we face in today’s complex world, namely issues on climate change which seem to preoccupy the minds of her angels.

 

This series of works entitled “Otherworlds” explores the climate crisis through the lens of looking beyond it towards higher dimensions for answers. Artist fuchsia is a deeply engaged artist who includes spiritual references within her paintings that have an otherworldliness and a fantastical quality akin to mythological tales told through the frescoes of European churches. Cherubs and snakes find their way within the backdrop of blazing fires and bursting luminescent pearl explosions of Light. During the last year, the world has seen an unprecedented amount of wildfires, which weighs heavy on humanity’s heart, fuchsia see the two sides of this crisis with its damage which can be transformed into rebirth. She further links ideas of fire in Christianity, where in the bible it speaks of fire as a tool of purification – a refiner’s fire melts down a metal, such as gold or silver, for purification purposes and alchemy. The Buddha’s third sermon (Vin I, 34-5), known in English as the Fire Sermon, begins: “Everything, O monks, is on fire. ” The Buddha then explains what he means by “everything”. It is all our faculties – the five senses plus the mind – and their objects and operations and the feelings they give rise to. To paraphrase: “everything” refers to the totality of experience. All components of our experience in this world, the Buddha declares, are on fire. They are on fire with passion, hatred and confusion. To reach Nirvana one must put out their fire within. Nirvana is a state to refer to the extinction of desire, hatred, and ignorance and, ultimately, of suffering and rebirth. Literally, it means “blowing out” or “becoming extinguished,” as when a flame is blown out or a fire burns out.

Her technique of placing dynamic brushwork alongside softer, smoother strokes, aims to further put to light this notion of contrast between good and evil, light and dark, our spiritual state and our human state. Her paintings, swaying between abstraction and semi-realism, encourage a philosophical dialogue among the viewer that she hopes, will transcend beyond the exhibition space.

fuchsia, as an artist, is deeply interconnected with nature and the Divine. In her writings, she describes her deep feelings when running and observing the clouds and nature around her which gives us insight to her creative process. “I really did feel like these natural entities shared a similar nature to us; something strangely enticing, something of a bizarrely indescribable spirit. I then thought about the importance of nature in my practice and the immense inspiration it gives me in my personal artistic expression. this is perhaps because I truly feel like art and nature both come from the same source of energy: that of the spirit. the spirit which manifests itself through the mere activity of observation, for instance — where the artist allows himself to deeply experience nature, where this depth is experienced again in the studio during the act of artistic creation. ”

ABOUT THE ARTIST
fuchsia (b. 1995, Paris) is a multimedia artist working primarily with painting. She completed an MA in song writing and production at Nottingham Trent University (2019) and a BA in liberal arts at the University of Bristol (2017). Her first solo exhibition anges & démons was held at Lieu Idéal, Paris (2022) and she has recently opened her first institutional solo show Searching for Light at Sixi Museum, China (2023). fuchsia is currently an artist-in-residence at the Sarabande Foundation, London, where she had a group show as well as a solo exhibition.

ABOUT 10 CHANCERY LANE GALLERY
Established in 2001, when Hong Kong’s art scene was burgeoning, Katie de Tilly started 10 Chancery Lane Gallery. Along the back wall of the, then running, Victoria Prison, now the buzzing Tai Kwun Heritage and Cultural site, the little walking lane opened into a gallery specializing in contemporary art from the Asia-Pacific. Over the past 22 years, 10 Chancery Lane has worked with some of the region’s great artists, curators and museums. The gallery’s motto still stands: “We are committed to giving a breath of fresh air to the Hong Kong art scene by bringing works that can expand horizons, open minds and view the world, and life in general, through varying eyes, ideas and souls. Art is not just decoration for our walls but a connection with our deep inner selves and the world around us.”