As this year’s The Script Road turns its focus to poetry and its broader relationship to the arts, two exhibitions of local artists will be presented that demonstrate this notion very well, one by Alexandre Marreiros, and the other by Crystal Chan. Crystal has been living in New York since 2015 and graduated from the School of Visual Arts. She had her first solo exhibition last year at Gallery 456 of The Chinese American Arts Council and is currently back home to participate in the Macau Literary Festival.
Can you tell us a bit about the collection of works you have chosen to display at this year’s Macau Literary Festival?
The works I’m going to exhibit are works that I created during 2016-2018 when I was in New York. They are oil paintings and acrylic paintings. In these paintings, I tried to get in touch with myself in a way that led me to trace back to my past, my identity, and what made me who I am today. It somehow brought back a lot of memories. There is a kind of nostaligic feeling. But memory doesn’t always taste sweet; it could be bitter or sad. Memory is also very abstract. It fades away when you try to recollect it. What it presents is no longer the fact, but the feeling it contains. I tried to address these feelings in my paintings, not to depict the details of specific events, but rather render the image in a way more like an illusion, crossing a line between the tangible and the intangible.
The focus of the Festival this year is on poets and poetry. Do you feel there is any connection or relationship between your work and this literary genre? Do you find inspiration in any particular poet or poetry?
Qi Baishi, one of my favorite painters, once said, “The excellence of a painting lies in its being alike, yet unlike. Too much likeness flatters the vulgar taste; too much unlikeness deceives the world.” I find this saying shares a similar philosophy with poetry. In the Classic of Poetry (Shijing, 詩經), there are three major ways to write: straightforward narrative (fù 賦), explicit comparisons (bǐ 比) and implied comparisons (xìng 興). With words left unsaid, we can leave room for imagination. The ambiguity and the indirectness allow us to interpreate in our own way. And that poetic sense and asthetics applies not only to poetry, but also to painting. I adopt these philosophies in my painting; so in a way, the objects that I paint are not as essential as the feelings they convey.
I also relate to Fernando Pessoa’s poetry, especially when he expresses both a position and a feeing of estrangement, as in his lines “I am my own landscape/ I watch myself journey/ Various, mobile, and alone.” In this poem, I, a person, becomes a landscape; and I, is able to watch myself journey. As if I am outside of myself. As if I don’t belong to myself. The power of poetry is that it is suggestive and elusive. And it could hit you just in a very simple implied comparison. I think of my painting as a single long poem, living in imagination.
You mention that your artwork focuses around ideas of nostalgia and memory. What is it about these concepts that you are drawn to and why do you think they influence your art?
Emotions and feelings are very essential in my paintings. I think I am quite a sentimental person. And that is reflected in my works. I remember the movie Youth has this quote, “You say that emotions are overrated. But that’s bullshit.
Emotions are all we’ve got.” When I encounter paintings by the artists that I love, I will immediately feel struck. It is like I can relate my sadness to the sadness of the artist, of the image, of the story. I have spent time living in different places, Taiwan, Greece, Portugal, and recently New York. The mobility, estrangement, and displacement that I’ve experienced make me feel like I’m looking forward at the same time as looking backward. Maybe people can relate to this, especially when we are living in a time full of new media and heightened mobility. We are constantly moving, but we may feel nostalgic for the past.
You have been based in New York for a few years now. How do you think your work has evolved over this time? Has the nature of that city had any impact on the way you approach your painting?
One way New York is very different from Macau, is that there are not that many right or wrong answers. There is less judgement. Maybe that’s the freedom that people talk about in New York. Often in Macau, I feel there is a standard answer. For example, before I went to New York, I worried if I was good enough; I wondered if the way I painted was good or bad.
In Macau, one thing people would give applause to was when you could draw tiny details, when you could make a portrait that resembled the real person, or when you knew a particular painting skill well.
However, on the contrary, in New York and in my school, those technical aspects are considered less important. What is important is you have to be in touch with yourself, you have to read and think about what you really want to express, what matters to you, what hurts you the most. It could be a feeling, or an event, or social issue, or the public; it has to be something about which you care a lot.
I think with this new perspective of painting, it leads me to understand myself better and the purpose of my paintings. So right or wrong, good or bad, are not the things that bothers me now. It is more like: THAT IS ME.
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The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival returns in March for its eighth edition, this year with a focus on the beautiful rhyme, rhythm and expression of poetry, and its ability to cross over and inspire other art forms like theatre, music, cinema and visual arts. The Script Road is inviting a number of renowned poets, particularly from China and Portuguese-speaking countries, to present engaging and informative workshops and discussion panels.


Salvador Sobral and his “small change” in the Portuguese music scene,
in concert at the Venetian on March 17


Rolling Puppets theatre group reflect on the work of
revolutionary writer Lu Xun


Born in 1977, Tong Chong has been an active figure in the local art scene, known for his works of painting, paper-cutting, wood sculpture and seal carving. Late last year he was commissioned to design the official poster for the 8th edition of The Script Road-Macau Literary Festival.
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