An artist’s humanitarian exploration

In The Bridge and the Fruit Tree: John Young – A Survey, the artist presents three bodies of work: (1) Safety Zone, (2) Abstract Paintings, and (3) Cardinal Paintings.

Born in Hong Kong and raised in Australia, John Young (1956-present) explores universal themes of history, the human spirit, and culturalism—described as taking on the role of “cultural intermediary.”

Safety Zone (2010) is the main feature of the exhibit—for its size, content, and message. It is a component of his recent series, Transcultural Humanitarian Projects, which examines historical episodes within the large-scale catastrophes of revolution and world war.

Safety Zone obtains its name from the international safe zone in Nanjing. In 1937 a group of 21 foreigners saved the lives of about 300,000 Chinese citizens during the “Rape of Nanjing” by sheltering them in the international Safety Zone. Young’s work is a tribute to this little-known humanitarian event.

Working on the Safety Zone project, the artist travelled to Nanjing, Berlin, and Heidelberg to research the catastrophe, conduct interviews, and collect photographs and documents. His exhibition includes a panel of 60 pieces, from chalk drawings on school blackboards, scribbles, and photographs to inkjet prints to convey the truth pictorially. Some panels are merely words. In this way, the message is penetrating and powerful. The whole board is a chilling and dramatic memory of the vices of war juxtaposed with the virtues and heroics of humanitarian assistance.

Included in the exhibition are fascinating black and white digital prints on oil and linen, such as Flower Market (Nanjing 1936) #1, Summer 2010 from his Abstract Paintings series. Other oils on linen include the Crippled Tree #1, Summer 2010 as well as dark, brooding pieces entitled Northern Song, and Naïve and Sentimental Paintings. The artist said he took the latter title from pieces of music by John Adam’s. The works use computer imagery plus oils for an interesting mix of innovative and traditional styles.

His oils on linen from the Cardinal Paintings series are his most intriguing, which the artist describes as “figurative and … a visual grammatical and syntactical investigation of representational imagery.” They are “experimental mindscapes which draw heavily on pre-modern Chinese and Western archaic sentiments.” The pieces, such as The Crowd’s Arrival, The Crowd Devours the Wolf, and The Wolf Feeds the Crowd are melancholic yet serene with a mesmerizing eeriness in their transparency.

Two of the brightest, most colourful pieces in an otherwise evocation of starkness, horror, sadness, and broodiness are inspired from stained glass windows from a church in Harlem and translated into swirling oil paintings.

His collection is brave and bold, sensitive and strong, intellectual and intense, vivid and varied. It is one of the most captivating and stimulating exhibits currently in Canberra.

John Young Zerunge’s exhibition at the Drill Hall Gallery in the Australian National University, Canberra, is on display from February 15 to March 24, 2013.