When viewing the pictures by Chen Xi terms like explosive, eruptive, gesticulory, natural, breathing, tossing, bursting and concentrated cross the observer’s mind.  Chen Xi mainly works with paper and “mixed media”. Indian ink, acryl, oil… with everything that produces this special effect desired by intuition. The pictures are a spontaneous montage of extremely thin and painted paper on canvas. This black we are confronted with as the exclusive colour. Only sometimes interrupted by sepia or natural tones, simultaneously creates the impression of condensing as well as of widening.

Chen Xi seems to be looking for an element, an original matter, the original cause of being.  The Tao? Searching Laotse, the founder of Taoism. We find the term “Tao” paraphrased but not exactly defined, the actual meaning being left obscure. Tao does not represent a personal god and is translated as path, original cause, origin, ratio, logos.  The Tao creates the one from which the two develops, which creates three from which all things emerge.

Chen Xi’s pictures lead observers into a partly ear-splitting – and eye bewitching universe, into which they are drawn, in which they may quickly feel dizzy and where they easily may lose track of things, not knowing in which cosmos they are situated. And as soon as they have freed themselves from this frenzy of perception, they may take with them a hint of an idea or even knowledge about the origin of their being from this journey.