M+, Hong Kong. M+ Council for New Art Fund, 2021, © Guo Hongwei. Photo: M+, Hong Kong
NARRATOR:
In 2017, Guo Hongwei created a series of watercolour paintings titled Illustration Book of Natural Form. Thirty-six of these paintings are on display in the exhibition Shanshui: Echoes and Signals. The paintings are square and framed, with each side measuring about forty centimetres. Each painting depicts a natural mineral or a crystal in the centre against a white background.
The paintings are hung six by six on a wall. From afar, the installation resembles a giant square display cabinet over two metres tall, with a mineral sample in each of its compartments.
Painted in watercolour, each mineral is roughly the size of a piece of A4 paper. They have distinct shapes, colours, and textures. One of the minerals looks like a piece of bright green jadeite with a bulbous surface. Another resembles amber, yellow with a dark orange, cloudy pattern. There’s also a flat, grey-green oval stone with stepped edges, which looks like it has been cut by an axe. A round, purplish pink stone perches on a rough grey rock like a freshly harvested crystal, emitting a gentle blue from its core.