ADRIFT IN WATER, SALT, AND SKY

The articulation of speed as a dominant force in Clarence Chun’s “adrift in water, salt, and sky” echoes futuristic depictions that would collapse space and time in a single image. Influenced by his observation of life surrounded by natural elements such as air and water, Chun meticulously executes compositions that characterize his ability to visually define momentum — narrating movements entrenched in sea waves and currents while the sky looms above. Chun’s approach to abstraction considers the technical aspects of painting as tools for carefully rendering and arranging forms that appear accidental at the onset but are purely intentional and planned. Here, Chun points to the plane where water and sky meet and where salt formation becomes a process that symbolizes transformation aided by time. Hence, understanding and seeing this portrayal permits the viewer to reflect upon individual experiences as we navigate parallel trajectories.

The artist’s invitation to observe speed is set out within the texture. Every layer of paint applied to the ground commands the viewer to pause and come close. At this point, Chun attempts to reward the viewer with seeing more as they draw closer to the painting. This exercise encourages the audience to become more mindful and tread slowly to see and understand what we may have missed or ignored as we quickly move away from point to point.

In planning the exact moment where elements would collide, clash, and strike, Chun intends for continuity in building images. The appearance, disappearance, and recurrence of every detail is attributed to attentive planning and organization of what should be present and absent in a structure. Chun somewhat places this ritual of discernment and total control in his image-making and yet remains to amuse us with what our mind perceives to be accidental renderings that aesthetically please and satisfy. “adrift in water, salt, and sky” somehow designs a conversation between the artist and the audience where the former places all the strategies and procedures to arrange a setting for the latter to receive with spontaneity and emotional response.

Clarence Chun (b. 1975) was born in Tacloban and raised in the cities of Houston and New York. He was awarded the Ellen Battell Stoekel Fellowship from Yale University School of Art in 1999 and had later received his BFA in Painting (cum laude) from the University of Houston School of Art and eventually completed his MFA in Painting at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He is also the recipient of the John Young Artist Award from the Honolulu Museum of Art in 2013. Chun’s works have been exhibited widely in Southeast Asia, in the United States, and in Europe and are also in the permanent collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art (USA), Hawai’i State Art Museum (USA), and the National Museum of Fine Arts (Manila, PH). He now lives and works between The Philippines and Hawaii.