For the inaugural exhibition of British artist Lucinda Burgess in China, she introduces a spectrum of colour, this is a development from the monotone pencil drawings that she is known for. There is also a new spectrum of structures within the works, indicating a progression from the conventional frame to more sculptural solutions.

All things are in a state of flux. — Heraclitus, ancient Greek philosopher 

In both past and present work, Burgess respects materiality in its natural state, be it paper, graphite, wax, pigment, steel or glass. She presents them simply and minimally and thereby accentuates their changeable natural character: paper bends, graphite and glass reflect, polished wax shines, steel changes tone as it ages. There is an emphasis placed on these natural processes of shining, reflecting and ageing because they underline the constantly changing nature of life, a consistent theme in her work. Take reflection: a natural process that happens without human intervention as the light continues to change and as the viewer moves around the gallery. Surfaces appear to glint, shine and ripple. There is a dialogue taking place. The visual field is in constant motion.

Entering the gallery space, a 5-meter drawing installation One Pencil Only (2024) acts as the opening of the show. This is made up of ten drawings that were each made with one pencil only and titled with the manufacturer’s colour reference, for example ‘One Pencil Only - India Red 192’. When a whole pencil of this colour is used, it turns out that it keeps changing: there is a variable ratio of wax to pigment; the colour also changes according to the angle of the paper surface in relation to the eye; according to the variable light in the room; the weather; the neighbouring colour, etc. Our experience as we walk around ‘India Red 192’ is in fact a spectrum of colour.

Drawing on her experience of monastic life as a Buddhist nun for over a decade, Burgess seeks to underline the fundamental contradiction between our ideas of fixity and our direct experience of constant, unrelenting motion. She also acknowledges and integrates the Taoist insights into the interplay of opposites—day/night, hot/cold, light/dark, birth/death. In this exhibition these opposing forces are visibly apparent with a series of monochrome works which are, at the same time, rectilinear and organic, hard and soft, masculine and feminine. Both ancient Chinese and Buddhist philosophies describe everything as being in movement. Things are always changing into other things, not standing still. Segue I (2024) and Segue II (2024) describe a transition: the drawings are folded, they are becoming sculptures. The frame is no longer a protection, instead, it has become a 3-dimensional sculptural component.

In an increasingly polarised world, Burgess’s work hints at underlying qualities of fluidity, motion and harmony, qualities which will outlive our all-too-human preoccupations and worries.