Time dreamed a dream, where time was an eternal tree, with all kinds of time hanging from its branches—sprouting, flourishing, yellowing, reddening, rustling in the wind.
I'd like to invite you to enter this dream of time – the exhibition Leaves of Dreams.
It is hard for most people to find out their true potential, the freedom and time inherent within them. It is the artist’s responsibility to provide the world with new possibilities. The works of Zhang Jian-Jun and Barbara Edelstein allow us to rediscover and re-experience time. Their unique experiences and understanding of the world give them a reclusive aura. Their works possess an undisturbed core, a transcendental sense of time, which is especially precious in this noisy era.
The occurrence of dreams, like the growth of leaves, is irresistible as a law of nature.
In 1982, Zhang Jian-Jun created Eternal Dialogue, foreshadowing his lifelong pursuit of the eternal dialogue between‘existence’and‘trace’. Over the past forty years, he has repeatedly captured emptiness in time. Works like Rubbing Sun retain the trace of fire with water and time. Works like Rubbing Planets use the infinite celestial sky to unlock the infinite in the human heart. He even Rubs the Rain, seeking ephemerality over and over on canvas and cotton. Rather than saying he has rubbed intangible things, it is more accurate to say he wants to reveal the essence of life and time. The act of rubbing is a meaningful futility that only belongs to humankind.
I AM FOREVER walking upon these shores,
Betwixt the sand and the foam,
The high tide will erase my foot-prints,
And the wind will blow away the foam.
But the sea and the shore will remain Forever.
– Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam
Zhang Jian-Jun’s relentless rubbing in time is not a Sisyphean ordeal, but a series of awakenings and intersections of sorrow and joy. Rubbing the planets and rain is also rubbing the traces of the heart, dreams, and time. Forty years later, Zhang Jian-Jun brings these moments of awakening together in Leaves of Dreams, like the tree canopy hung with all kinds of time – sprouting, flourishing, yellowing, reddening.
Deeply influenced by Eastern philosophy, Barbara Edelstein has a profound understanding and love for nature. The leaves she creates contain the whole forest – vibrant, yet profound. These are not ordinary leaves, but leaves encompassing past, present and future time, with distinct veins like human palm prints. People leave such prints by making hand impressions on cave walls. We use our hands to imprint the traces of life in time.
Barbara infuses the leaves with abundant vitality and rich new sensations. The hopes of human life, like the growth and withering of leaves, cycle and regenerate in nature and time.
Zhang Jian-Jun and Barbara have blazed new trails through time in their own ways. Their works transcend ordinary time and sensation. Dreams are the leaves of time, leaves are the time within time. Their works possess an inherent quality that transcends this title – Leaves of Dreams is an exhibition that breaks free of the gravity of time.
Just as trees have leaves, people have dreams, silently taking shape in time.
Dreams and leaves are alike yet contradictory. Leaves will always sprout and grow, dreams will always awaken. Thus, the freedoms rediscovered in these dreams will continue to grow in our lives.
Text by Dr. Shen Qilan
