Mineral Painting

Mineral pigment bound with animal glue on more than twenty layers of hand-mounted paper, finished with gold leaf, mica and crystal; a method descended from the Dunhuang murals and the Tibetan thangka, now protected by patent.

論

The series

A mandala with no figure at its centre.

The thangka mandala is a symmetrical cosmos with a deity at its centre. Ku Chi-Chun rewrites it as an asymmetrical lotus in bloom, ordered by layers of colour rather than by a figure. Symmetry stands for completion and eternity; asymmetry admits the uncertainty of a life and the passing of time, and leaves the centre to whoever stands before the painting. She calls the programme Neo-Oriental Humanism. The craft is East Asian, from the Dunhuang workshops and the thangka ateliers to the Taiwanese gouache academy; the sense of time, the anxiety and the belief are present-day.

The square works hang as diptychs. The tondi, 25 to 45 cm across, are mandalas that can be held, and take the practice into a private room. One red is admitted across the series, the vermilion seal that marks the author and the authenticity of the work. Flower hangs at the Taipei Representative Office in France; the series was last shown at the Lin Chih-Chu Memorial Museum, Taichung, in a group exhibition of Eastern gouache.

Gloved hands tearing a sheet of gold leaf beside the pigment box

TEDxYongkang · Clip Why the rarest medium 為什麼選最冷門的媒材 0:45

作品

Series I · Mineral Painting 膠彩

The tondi, and the square diptychs.

Vishuddha, 2023. A round mineral painting in pink and peach with small yellow flower motifs and crystal, on an ivory ground — Series I · Mineral Painting 膠彩 No. 05 Vishuddha, 2023 Mineral pigment and crystal on hand-mounted rice paper 60 × 60 cm Private collection

Awakening, 2023. A round mineral painting in green, teal and blue with plum-coloured crinkled petals, on an ivory ground — Series I · Mineral Painting 膠彩 No. 20 Awakening, 2023 Mineral pigment and crystal on hand-mounted rice paper 60 × 60 cm Private collection

A round mineral painting in coral and rose, framed in black, among palms and ferns in a glass garden pavilion — Series I · Mineral Painting 膠彩 Round mineral painting, shown in a garden pavilion Mineral pigment, gold leaf and crystal on paper

A round mineral painting in pink and coral on an easel among spring greenery at an evening exhibition — Series I · Mineral Painting 膠彩 Round mineral painting, shown in a garden pavilion Mineral pigment, gold leaf and crystal on paper

Two round mineral paintings in pale blue and magenta on a sage-green ground — Series I · Mineral Painting 膠彩 Round Mineral Paintings, pair Mineral pigment, gold leaf and crystal on paper

Two round mineral paintings in coral and pink on a sage-green ground — Series I · Mineral Painting 膠彩 Round Mineral Paintings, pair Mineral pigment, gold leaf and crystal on paper

工序

Process

Pigment, glue and layers, leaf and crystal.

Stone is ground to powder in the studio and bound with animal glue, melted and laid one layer at a time; each layer dries before the next goes on. Beneath the colour lie more than twenty layers of hand-mounted washi and xuan paper. The last layer is Japanese gold and silver leaf, mica and crystal. The waiting is part of the method, and the sequence is what the patent protects.

Pigment jars, a mortar, brushes and shells among dried flowers on the studio bench — Pigment. Stone ground to powder, kept by colour in jars on the bench.

A wide brush, a dish of animal glue and a bowl of yellow pigment on lace — Glue and layers. Pigment bound with warm animal glue and laid over paper mounted in more than twenty layers.

Gloved hands pressing a crystal into the crinkled petal layer of a mineral painting — Leaf and crystal. Gold and silver leaf over the colour; crystal pressed into the petals by hand.

Glue-bound pigment poured from a jar onto the centre of a mandala board on the studio bench — The studio bench, Taipei. Glue-bound pigment poured onto the centre of a mandala board; the petals beneath are already dry.

細部

Details, No. 01

The ground, the petals, the centre.

Mineral Painting, 2018 (detail). Magenta pigment ground flecked with gold, with yellow butterfly cut-outs and the edge of a crinkled petal — No. 01, detail. The magenta ground, flecked with gold.

Mineral Painting, 2018 (detail). Overlapping crinkled petals in coral, orange and yellow with small crystals set into the surface — No. 01, detail. Petals of pigment and foil in relief, crystal set into the surface.

Mineral Painting, 2018 (detail). The gold-leaf ring at the centre of the mandala, set with crystals, on yellow and orange petals, with the centre seam of the diptych — No. 01, detail. The gold-leaf ring at the centre, and the seam of the diptych.

Utility model TW M623403 U, “Craft structure of composite material layers built on a mineral-pigment framework”. Filed 4 November 2021, published 11 February 2022. Inventor and holder: Ku Chi-Chun. Pigment methods of the Dunhuang murals and the Tibetan thangka; Japanese gold and silver leaf; mica; crystal. The patent's technical documentation accompanies every commissioned work.

展覽現場

In situ

On the museum wall, Taichung.

Ku Chi-Chun in a pink dress and straw hat, back to the camera, before her round mineral painting on the gallery wall, with the exhibition sign in the foreground — Echoes from the Himalayas in Eastern Gouache, Lin Chih-Chu Memorial Museum, Taichung, 2026 (group exhibition).

作品全覽

The series in full

Every work, and where it hangs.

Mineral paintings hung above a flower installation at an exhibition opening

IMineral Painting膠彩2013 – present
IICalligraphy書法2013 – present
IIIHeroine女英雄2015
IVBuddhist Calligraphy經書2014 – present
VCommissions委託創作2013 – present

Mineral paintings are made to commission, singly or as a series.

Every work in the series is in a private or public collection. Commissions are scheduled from a waiting list; prices on application.

Enquire Guided viewings at the annual art fairs, by booking.