看而不识
——“一袋泥土”展评
文/Jacob Clayton
 
Looking, but not Pointing
A Review of Exhibition A Sack of Dirt, 2024
by Jacob Clayton
 
 
简介:英国艺术家兼作家Jacob Clayton分享了他对最近由策展人李雨晖（Catherine Yuhui Li）在伦敦Lot Projects空间策划的展览“一袋泥土”的评价。本次展览展出的作品来自意大利华裔画家Dien Berziga和在中国北京工作和生活多年的英国艺术家James Lang。
 
Introduction: British artist and writer Jacob Clayton shares his review of the recent exhibition “A Sack of Dirt” curated by London-based Chinese curator, Catherine Li, at Lot Projects in London. The exhibition showcases paintings by Dien Berziga, a Chinese-Italian painter, and James Lang, a British artist who has spent many years working and living in Beijing, China.
 
In The Freedom to Be Free, Hannah Arendt postures a perceptively oligarchical notion of truth rooted in Christianity;
‘one comprehensive principle to establish an order among the human faculties, a truth moreover which was understood as revelation, as something essentially given to man, as distinguished from truth being either the result of some mental activity – thought or reasoning – or as that knowledge which I acquire through making.’ [1]
 
In making a clear distinction between what is learned firsthand and what is learned secondhand, one might think of the existential discussion in Modernist painting, the conflict between what comes from within and what comes from without. Presently, as situated within a prism of multiple realities, the artist’s role is more than ever a navigation of these competing arenas of information. Encountered today, in an age of fake news and tactical politics, it would seem that the latter — this truth coming from without — is becoming increasingly fallible in its potential for corruption. How then can we re-approach the idea of revelation? — Which we have so rightly become sceptical of — through our experiences of viewing art?
 
 
Image: Exhibition view of A Sack of Dirt © Catherine L
In A Sack of Dirt, Catherine Yuhui Li approaches this question through her curation, reminding us that for revelation to ever feel like truth, we require faith, and that faith itself simply comes from our genuine experience. This exhibition is an invitation to return to the genuine experience of looking, a looking that is only for the sake of looking.  Instead of presenting a curatorial statement, Catherine's role here may be seen as that of a catalyst. She creates a space where the viewer's mind can wander freely, fostering an intimate exploration. Her approach sets up a subtle game, hinting at but not directly pointing to those areas where revelation may be found. In the painting works of both Dien Berziga and James Lang, language, labor, history, and technology are intricately crafted together. We witness the clashes of ancient archetypes such as Roman architectural faç