Ruben Pang
Pang’s artistic process focuses on automatism, the neurosis and drama of the human condition. Beginning with painting, Pang’s practice also led him to explore the dynamism and spontaneity of ceramic sculpture, and the sensitivities and collaborative spirit of music through A Talon Touches The Lake.
Pang resists binaries in genres such as ‘abstraction’ and ‘figuration’ and embraces both experimental and traditional approaches, often combining both within the same painting. A sensibility towards superficial finish is characteristic of his work.
Working without a preconceived image of the final composition, his approach allows the imagery to surface spontaneously; a “visual syncopation, like searching for a melody in white noise”.
Using a combination of oils, alkyds and acrylics he paints, scratches and erases his paintings using brushes, hands, palette knives and sandpaper, revealing layers of colour that reflect projections of his psyche.
About the image Remember Me, Rodeo
Pang presents a faceless dancer. She points towards an ‘all seeing’ light, a house that is home to knowing, that is blessed and protected. Her companion on stage is a rider without reins.
Both characters are fully immersed in their state of flow, they live in each limb, nerve and
movement, attaining their rhythm with a mind freed from self-consciousness. The circulation of their bodies keeps them in a suspended state that is fearless and weightless.
