Soft Distances

Artists
Xu Hualing
Chen Ke
Tsai Yi-Ting
Caroline Walker
Yang Bodu
Veronika Pausova

Lin & Lin Gallery is pleased to present the new curatorial project "Soft Distances" in July. This exhibition brings together six artists with diverse cultural backgrounds——Xu Hualing (1982), Chen Ke (1978), Tsai Yi-Ting (1981), Caroline Walker (1982), Yang Bodu (1986), and Veronika Pausova (1987) ——collectively explore the subtle distance in both close and distant between seeing and seen.

"Soft Distance" refers to a perceptual ambiguity that shows images not only close to the audience's memories and emotions but also reserved with an impenetrable sense of strangeness. Rather than defining how to see with abstract theory, the exhibition chooses to take the original emotions, symbols, and perspectives within the works themselves to create a space where the audience experiences the ebb and flow of psychological proximity.

The six artists use different visual vocabulary to respond to this theme. Xu Hualing depicts woman's portrait by delicate gongbi with ink and watercolor, where the blurred face and the composure emotion create the typical "soft distance" gaze. Showing the unique visual language that is gentle yet tension, Chen Ke weaves memories and fantasies into a psychological landscape that borders on a fairy tale. Tsai Yi-Ting presents and provokes the subtle tension between sense and existence through the abstract process of body and space. Capturing the city life and labor's scene from the narrative perspective, Caroline Walker makes the familiar landscape turn into strangeness while seeing. Yang Bodu presents the visual language of unfocused and blurry to break the seeing's certainty down, placing the audience between chasing and loss. Veronika Pausova deconstructs and reconstructs daily objects through the visual reorganization of collage and symbol, creating a visual context that is both personal but echoing. 

This exhibition deliberately emphasizes the personal emotions and intensive expressions in each work, allowing the audience to experience a sense of ambiguous distance during seeing. The emotions, imagery, and symbols in the work are both familiar and strange, such as a subtle calling that allows a dialogue between the audience and the work, but their internal significance cannot be fully understood. This sensation of soft distances draws the audience closer to the artist's emotional world while preserving a space for detachment and suspension, enabling every individual to generate a unique psychological and emotional experience, highlighting each artist's personal expression and diversity.

"Soft Distance" not only presents the artist's personal perspective but also invites audience to rethink the nature of seeing: How do we see the world, and how does the world see us? The emotions, spaces, and symbols within the images are not merely visual experiences but a dialogue across sensory, psychological, and social dimensions. The exhibition does not pursuit a single conclusion; instead, it creates an open field for reflection and resonance within this gentle, nuanced distance.