Whispers of Stone compresses two interrelated bodies of work—Mountain (1993–2014) and Virtual (2010–2012)—into a unified exploration of visual perception, cultural resonance, and the shifting nature of reality. Spanning nearly two decades, the project reflects an evolving investigation into the tension between form and formlessness, structure and spontaneity.

​

The Mountain Series adheres to a set of self-imposed formal restrictions: a monochromatic black-and-white palette, a consistently narrow rectangular format, and a disciplined process of introducing new visual elements. The format, echoing vertical and horizontal scrolls, invokes traditional Chinese painting while transforming it through contemporary methods. Representational motifs drawn from classical literati landscapes—mist-covered crags, ancient trees, winding rivers—are rendered as ghostly inversions, resembling photographic negatives. These compositions employ wax and black duflat pigment to create velvety, light-absorbing surfaces, cultivating a sense of depth and optical ambiguity. The resulting imagery hovers between presence and absence, encouraging reflective engagement rather than narrative resolution.

​

In contrast, the Virtual Series employs acrylic pigment diluted with water and applied to the reverse side of the canvas, allowing the medium to bleed through naturally. This technique aligns with Taoist principles of non-intervention and spontaneity, producing organically abstract forms on the surface. Visually, the work alludes simultaneously to close-up brushwork found in traditional ink paintings and to distant, aerial views of terrain—suggesting a disorienting shift in scale and perspective. The scroll format reappears here not merely as a visual reference, but as a conceptual bridge between tradition and contemporaneity.

​

Throughout Whispers of Stone, traditional Chinese aesthetics are not appropriated as symbols but engaged as structural and philosophical frameworks. Emptiness, indeterminacy, and the coexistence of opposites serve as foundational principles. Rather than presenting fixed imagery, the works evoke atmospheric states that foreground ambiguity as a central condition of perception.

The overarching theme of uncertainty—both existential and aesthetic—anchors the project. Ambiguity becomes a deliberate strategy, blurring boundaries between the real and the imaginary, the historical and the contemporary, the spiritual and the material. In an age marked by fragmentation and distance, Whispers of Stone offers a space for contemplation, where traditional sensibilities and modern realities converge in quiet dialogue.