QIRUI TAN

I am a painter based in Newcastle upon Tyne with an interest in still life and urban landscape.

 

Basically, my painting practice investigates the relationship between still life and urban landscape, and further explores the possibility of integrating the characteristics of landscape to conceive new representations of still life not only in historical but also in contemporary context. In my paintings, still life and landscape are not two separated categories, but interchange and merge together.

 

Watercolour serves as the main medium in my painting practice that supports the breach of the aforementioned categories. Based on photographic images, the paintings explore the notions of space, perspective, scale as well as reality and simulation. We overlooked some everyday objects because we are too familiar with them. The idea of turning the familiar into uncanny also interests me a lot in the process of painting.

 

The in-between space in my paintings pertains to a kind of space oscillating between still life and urban landscape. Instead of providing a specific definition of the ‘space’, the paintings offer an opportunity to explore the possibility of integrating these two categories. This kind of ambiguity keeps the painting open-ended and leads the viewers to rethink the interrelation of still life and urban landscape as well as how one’s perspective influence the interpretations.