Christine Ay Tjoe: Lesser Numerator @ White Cube Mason's Yard
Presenting a new body of work, Christine Ay Tjoe investigates the needs and molecular conditions of people, as well as the connections between individuals and the natural world across mathematical fractions. Exhibited at White Cube, Mason’s Yard in London, Lesser Numerator occupies the entire white wall space, presenting an abstract collection of oil paintings in the artist’s trademark expressionist gestural style. Ay Tjoe examines the persistence of philosophical dichotomies – individual and societal, peace and chaos, light and dark, good and evil – through her creative process, which exposes their unequivocal unity.
Christine Ay Tjoe, Lesser Numerator #5, 2023. Oil on canvas, 170 x 200 cm. Photo Courtesy: White Cube.
The works presented in the exhibition are numbered 1 through 12. The mathematical theme, denoted by the title, explores societal behaviour across arithmetic fractions composing the whole. The numerator, placed above the fractional line, indicates how many divisions are part of the total of the numerical fraction. Meanwhile, the denominator beneath the line indicates the total number of divisions composing the whole in equal parts. Therefore, the numerator assumes the role of the individual’s interaction and inclusion within the wider concept of society or the collective community, denoted by the denominator. Similarly, the paintings are distinct, independent artworks constructing a complete unit as a singular exhibition. Reflecting every individual’s decision of limitation or indulgence, the artist appoints the numerator as the living component of the mathematical equation. Therefore, Lesser Numerator explores the minimum or the smallest component of resources necessary to reach the attainment of the whole.
Christine Ay Tjoe, Lesser Numerator, 2023. Installation view. Photo Courtesy: White Cube.
The concept elaborates on the most essential and smallest aspect of the self, which can be utilised to direct one’s own actions and have a cascading effect on the surrounding community, ultimately leading to societal transformation. Focussing on the idea of choosing restraint in a culture that values rapacity and endless appetite, the paintings are the result and realisation of the artist’s profound philosophical and psychic excavations. The powerful and revelatory works feature a visual tension between delicate colours, tone mixes and expressive gestural markings.
Christine Ay Tjoe, Lesser Numerator, 2023. Installation view. Photo Courtesy: White Cube.
The artworks come to life across subdued tones on an off-white primed canvas. The combination of grey, sepia brown, cerulean blue and bright red create a vortex of contrasting cold and warm colours. The darker tones allude to a sense of depth upon the beige canvas, communicating an aura of inner darkness. As for the brighter colours, the turquoise creates an intense vivacity, intrinsically woven with shades of red; this combination of colours appears immediately to the human gaze, communicating a half-hidden sense of vitality and movement.
The artist works primarily with oil sticks, creating bold slashes or clusters of colour and intervenes with her hands to intuitively work the medium into the canvas. The resilient signature gestural movements of the artist in Lesser Number #1 capture an abstract form twisting within itself. Christine Ay Tjoe’s training in dry point etching has allowed her to develop a great grasp of line, colour, and space, as seen in the compositional elements that define her arrestingly powerful abstractions.
Christine Ay Tjoe, Lesser Numerator #1, 2023. Oil on canvas, 170 x 200 cm. Photo Courtesy: White Cube.
Christine Ay Tjoe, Lesser Numerator #1, 2023. Oil on canvas, 170 x 200 cm. Detail. Photo Courtesy: Grace Jamieson Bianciardi.
Moreover, in the bottom right corner of Lesser Numerator #3, three hands are clearly visible. These figurative elements seem to be escaping the chaos of the distorted vortex. The hands are composed of a primed shade of brown and finished with detailed linework and a fine border. The dialogue between the gentile shading and intentional brushwork creates a new artistic language individual to the artist.
Christine Ay Tjoe, Lesser Numerator #3, 2023. Oil on canvas, 170 x 200 cm. Photo Courtesy: White Cube.
Christine Ay Tjoe, Lesser Numerator #3, 2023. Oil on canvas, 170 x 200 cm. Detail. Photo Courtesy: Grace Jamieson Bianciardi.
Christine Ay Tjoe, Lesser Numerator #3, 2023. Oil on canvas, 170 x 200 cm. Detail. Photo Courtesy: Grace Jamieson Bianciardi.
The artist’s close exposure to Egon Schiele and Horst Janssen informed her personal style, particularly influencing the distinct depiction of recognisable human anatomy. Upon first glance, the expressionist compositions resemble swirling natural structures and vegetation. However, the closer you place yourself to the canvas, the more abstract visceral internal human apparatuses appear – heart tissues and vain ventricles – intricately juxtaposed within the dynamic vortex to detailed limbs and hands.
Overall, Lesser Numerator delves into the most essential and smallest aspect of the self, which can be utilised to direct one’s actions and have a cascading effect on the community, ultimately leading to societal transformation. The combination of recognisable figurative depictions and abstract gestural expressions connects this series of paintings to the artist’s interwoven dialogue of opposites. The tones of florescent red combined with the subdued blues, greys and browns, in addition to the precise linework juxtaposed to the spontaneous brushstrokes, integrally contribute to the discourse of dichotomies. Finally, Christine Ay Tjoe contemplates the place of the molecular self in the broader concept of society through complex entangled non-figurative forms.
Lesser Numerator is on display at White Cube, Mason’s Yard, until 13 January 2024.
Grace Jamieson Bianciardi
Reviews Co-Editor, MADE IN BED