Ink, white-coloured pencil, charcoal, pastel on paper and document

74 x 141.5 cm.29 1/7 x 55 5/7 in； 40 x 28 cm. (Document) 15 3/4 x 11 in.

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

This work is accompanied by an explanation document and a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist issued by Taipei Mind Set Arts Center.

Strike the Heart and Purify the Soul with Pen
Snow Peak under Moonlight by Shi Jin-Hua

Shi Jin-hua is a Taiwanese contemporary artist, who specialized in conceptual art and performance art. His creations are always pivoting around his own state of being and life experiences, as he treats his own body as an instrument for artistic execution, and constantly exploring existential questions and reflecting extraordinary spirit. Shi has been invited to participate in Art Basel Hong Kong, Taipei Biennial and Asian Biennales. And he has also been a resident artist at the MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York and was awarded with Kaohsiung Award and Taipei Art Award. Public collections owning his works include the White Rabbit Collection, Australia; Taiwan Art Bank, Taiwan; Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan; and National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Shi's artworks are widely recognized by art communities at home and abroad.

Following Pen Walk, Circumambulating Mount Kailash
Covered by snow all year around, Mount Kailash, meaning “precious jewel of snow” in Tibetan, is considered sacred by Tibetan Buddhism and Hinduism, and both regard the mountain as the center of the world. The Tibetans believe that circumambulating Mount Kailash will wash away all the sins, leaving you clean and pure and bringing enlightenment. In the latest Pen Walking: The Mount Kailash Series, Shi used pencils as a meditative tool and created a portrayal of his own pilgrimage, a journey with repeated kneeling and bowing, an effort to cleanse the soul.

Pen Walking #169: Snow Peak under Moonlight, which documents Shi's pilgrimage in Tibet. He first dip-dyed the paper with black ink, and then performed the action of “pen walking” with white pencils to depict the streams, the wilderness, and the snow peak that he encountered through the course of his travels. This artwork was intentionally created under the dusk moon, so that the pencils not only traced the path of Shi's journey, but also wholeheartedly mirrored the sacred mountain under the divine moonlight during the creative process.

Many artists tend to use paintings or photos to capture or even compete with the beauty of nature, while Shi passed the creative ownership to the "walker" completely and was only being there as a true witness and narrator. He did not stop until the lead of the pencil worn out, representing the spiritual learning in Tibet, a pilgrimage journey that has set his body and spirit free.

Price estimate:
HKD: 80,000 – 150,000
USD: 10,200 – 19,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 129,800