Short Description

Yifan named this painting “COSMOS” because he is into the charming harmony and chaos of the universe. He was also influenced and inspired by the COVID19. Some of those “stars” or “black holes” refer to the virus. Watching this painting, whether it reminds you of the macro-cosmos or the micro-cosmos, its stable existence is already there. Yifan hopes to provoke thinking towards watching a thing from various perspectives and how we make new balances.

Front View

COSMOS, 36” x 48”, acrylic and golden spray on canvas, front view

Front Details

Artist Statement

This 4’ x 3’ canvas painting is a piece of abstract expressionism acrylic-based painting. I mainly used pouring materials and normal acrylics to make multiple layers, while applying some golden spray as embellishments. The name of this artwork is “COSMOS” because I am really into the charming harmony and chaos of the universe, as this wonderful sense of “contradiction and unity” occurs since Big Bang. Everything is developing within this natural law. This is true of my stream-of-consciousness. Thousands of thoughts and ideas always happen to me at the same time. When I let this go, each one of them twinkles on its own while they coexist and resonate vibrantly in my head. When I was painting this piece, my brain was just as active as the magnificent space.

I first poured and dripped acrylics onto the unprimed canvas. Before it was completely dry, I used sticks to draw patterns with the thick pigment mess. Then I used my styled brushwork with raw pigments directly squeezed from the tubes onto the canvas to paint the margins and the four canvas sides. I call them “mixed color chunks”. I also applied this typical brushwork to paint circles, spots, lines chains and other irregular shapes. Then the “COSMOS” seems to be inlaid in an indefinable special zone, namely, the plane of my mind, showing this cosmos is the cosmos of my intuition, my psyche and my life.

Because it was created during the COVID-19 pandemic period, within the social context of this worldwide disaster, I was also influenced and inspired by the coronavirus. Some of those round shapes also refer to the virus. As I wrote above, the universe is so magical and incredible that I have found there is some mysterious relevance between the macro cosmos and the microcosmos. Watching my painting, whether it reminds you of stars or coronavirus, its stable existence is already there. Even sometimes bad things can be converted to good things, vice versa. One common sense is bacteria and viruses have a symbiosis with animals. This means we human beings will not live long without them. The result all depends on how we regard them and how we deal with this relationship. Just like how I deal with my stream-of-consciousness, as long as we take the initiative, we will eventually find its new balance to let everything be back to the splendid “unified opposition”—the infinitely gorgeous COSMOS. This is just how I got the painting of COSMOS done.

Side Views

Making Process