 ong Kun's oeuvre of the past several years has been to first deconstruct a period time in her own life and then expose the results to scrutiny - critically investigating her own belief systems and her place in society. The 20 paintings included in Seeking the Recluse But Not Meeting, articulate in-depth her continuing quest for internal reconciliation and the spiritual destiny. The title of the exhibition is inspired by a poem by Jia Dao (779 – 843 CE, Tang Dynasty). In the poem, Seeking the Recluse but not Meeting, the poet is looking for a recluse living in the mountains, knowing this recluse is near, but not being able to find him. One becomes a recluse for many reasons, but often he, who chooses to be away from the public, is to seek the ultimate spiritual enlightenment in solitude, in order to arrive at a final blessed state marked by the absence of desire and suffering.
 Like her previous series of paintings and collages, Song works from her immediate surroundings. Her paintings illustrate the ones who are seeking the recluse and their episodes on the journey: an exhausted man dozing off against the bus window, a woman reading a letter on the airplane, a troubled man standing on the Bund in Shanghai, a monk contemplating on the top of the Qiyun Mountain, a female punk singer rocking out on the stage while a security guard watching her from off the stage, an Irish woman sipping beer in a New York pub, sculptures of deer in Song’s hometown- “The Deer City” with deer long being extinct, a piece of letter floating in the water, the Tower of Babel, the Bridge of No Return and the hazy view of paradisical Los Angeles through a moving car’s window… The characters in the timeless, somber and quiet paintings represent various races, backgrounds and genders, underlying Song’s own self-reflection and self-transformation. The clash between her subconscious explorations and her existence in the real world sparks the rich and complex context in her work that is poetic and intense. The sense of a linear narrative helps us gain insight into her skepticism toward pure capitalism, and her personal attempts to honor the native traditions and culture that has nurtured millions of Chinese for thousands of years.
The world is well aware of the breakneck speed at which China has been developing. However, while embracing the opening of their country and its shift towards its own peculiar form of market economy, China's younger generation of artists, whose everyday lives and artistic careers are pressured by a society impatiently craving productivity and prosperity, are constantly challenged by the realities that  conflict with the previous generation's idealism. This current generation straddles China’s history and China’s future as none has done before. With China’s many traditional identities being deliberately replaced with a collective, global consumer identity, unparalleled cultural, environmental and social transformations threaten all aspects of life today. As a young artist caught up in China’s massive urbanization, Song demonstrates, in this series of paintings, the pursuit of her own brand of idealism.
Born in Inner Mongolia in 1977, Song graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2002. She is a founding member of the Chinese collective known as N12 Group, consisting of twelve of the most talented artists born in the 1970’s who emerged from the Central Academy of Fine Arts from 2002 to 2004. Their work demonstrated a clear departure from the well-known Chinese stylistic developments of political pop and cynical realism towards individual styles driven by their personal emotions and experiences. In 2005, Song was recognized by the award committee of the 2005 Triennial of Chinese Art as the “Most Promising Young Female Artist.” In 2007, she exhibited “It's My Life” at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles – her first solo exhibition in the United States. The installation featured a selection from her series of three hundred sixty-five paintings that each candidly depicts one day in a year of her daily existence.
 Seeking the Recluse but not Meeting will be on display at the Walter Maciel Gallery from September 12 to October 17, 2009. During the exhibition, Song will incorporate music by electronic musician Mu Lian into the installation. By adding aural affects, an environment, in which the senses of both sight and sound are stimulated simultaneously, is to be created. Mu Lian’s music samples electronic sound, acoustic instruments and vocals, imprinted with picturesque soundscapes, the style of soliloquy story-telling and the quality of post-rock and minimalism. The melodies maneuver between the light and the darkness, negotiate between the contemplative silence and hypnotic monologues and weave through diverse arrangements. In between dream and reality, in between memory and sub-conscience, a journey of seeking the recluse has embarked.
Los Angeles, July 2009
 Danielle Shang is an independent journalist, curator and critic. She is contributor for Art Asia Pacific and Yishu Magazine. She lives and works in Los Angeles.
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