He Jian's Close Encounters and the poetry of ordinary life
Domestic interiors and ordinary gestures become central in He Jian's work, where poetry lies less in what is shown than in how it is painted.
A concrete inventory of daily life
He Jian returns to domestic interiors, tables and acts such as eating, drinking, sitting, walking, smoking, talking and embracing. Painting slows down what daily attention normally filters out.
Ancient faces enter contemporary rooms
Faces and poses recall figures from temple and grotto murals, yet the subjects hold books, cigarettes, cups or toys amid checked tablecloths, appliances and covered sofas.
Poetry lies in how, not what
The exhibition text locates poetry in the manner of depiction. Composition, pose and distance make familiar scenes strange enough to be seen again, without forcing them into fixed symbols.
Rather than asking first what the figures symbolise, notice how bodies, furniture and objects organise a scene that is both intimate and distant.