LA cHAPELLE sAINT-aNTOINE

Artist Residency - Naxos Cyclades

April 2025

Geopoetry - Naxos

Geopoetry originated on the Greek island of Naxos as a painting-based, transregional project, later extending to the United Kingdom, Taiwan, and other locations. The series employs a material-based painting methodology, exploring the intersection of plant ecology, geological textures, and cultural memory through the lens of specific sites. The works use local and non-native plants as a cross-cultural “language,” considering the symbolic meanings they carry across civilizations—medicinal, religious, political, decorative, and historical—as well as linking geological formations with mythological heritage, revealing the metaphorical connections between humans and land, history and nature.

On this island, the presence of plants often transcends the biological level, deeply shaping human choices, desires, and cultural constructions. Some species were introduced for their practical use, others planted for aesthetic preference, and some incorporated into mythology, serving as silent carriers of cultural narratives. Saffron, papyrus, and olive trees exemplify this dynamic—they provide material resources to the Mediterranean world while also condensing into historical symbols.

Geopoetry emphasizes sensory and tactile experience. I collect local natural elements and select materials with a “geological context”—including soil, plaster, marble powder, minerals, fossils, and mother-of-pearl—to create layered, textured surfaces on canvas. These materials not only narrate the processes of natural deposition but also respond to Eastern aesthetics exemplified in lacquered mother-of-pearl craft, reflecting qualities of “lustrous yet restrained, subtle yet profound.” Using these seemingly small yet historically weighty plants as a medium, I convey the spiritual texture embedded in nature, producing a series of relief-like mixed-media paintings that express fragility through solid, enduring materials. Though plants may wither, once they decompose into the soil, they become part of the local history and geography, achieving a form of eternal transformation.

Plants and Flowers

My practice is also inspired by the murals of ancient Minoan and Aegean civilizations, particularly the wall language and visual beauty preserved on Crete and Santorini. During my residency, I closely observed and documented the island’s plant ecology—plants that resiliently grow from crevices, windblown sands, and infertile soils. From a microscopic perspective, these plants reveal poignant vitality and the beauty of natural evolution; their existence resembles layers of geological memory, silently witnessing the long flow of climate, topography, and species succession.

About Materials

Pintura Matèrica in Naxos

My artistic practice is rooted in the core philosophy of Pintura Matèrica—a material-based painting approach where the physicality of matter and the accumulation of textures become a narrative of time. I construct my paintings like archaeological strata, layering natural elements such as marble, plaster, concrete, soil, mother-of-pearl, and fossils. Through this process, the canvas is transformed into a sedimentary field imbued with stone-like tactility. Each crack suggests the passage of geological time, while every act of repair becomes a mark of temporality and preservation.

This dialectic of destruction and regeneration, ephemerality and permanence, allows material energy to crystallize into tactile, perceptible slices of history and geography.

My visual language reflects not only the hybridity of regional identity but also responds to cycles of deconstruction and reconstruction embedded in collective histories. Through these layered compositions—at once abstract and concrete—I seek to reveal the subtle yet profound interconnections between natural matter and human existence. The most ordinary materials, through the act of creation, are distilled and elevated into a ritualistic, spiritual form of artistic expression.

I hope viewers can sense, within the work, a meditation on the irreversibility of the past, a heightened sensitivity to the present moment, and an awareness of the uncertainties that lie ahead. My practice weaves together the Eastern aesthetic of mono no aware—the poignancy of things—with Western existential poetics. It brings together intuitive material processes and critical reflections on memory, impermanence, and place.

在 Instagram 查看這則貼文

余政諺 YU CHENG YEN（@art.chengyen）分享的貼文

Amidst the island’s rich tapestry of history and nature, I was deeply inspired by its light, landscape, and cultural atmosphere. This body of work emerged as an artistic dialogue with the land—an exploration shaped by the rhythms of place.

The film captures not only the process of making the artworks, but also intimate moments of interaction with local materials, the environment, and the people I encountered. Through this visual record, I hope to invite viewers into the cadence of Naxos itself—where art becomes a means of connection, resonance, and presence.

Since the dawn of Greek civilization, this white treasure has served as a vessel for both art and faith. As early as the 7th century BCE, islanders quarried marble with bronze tools, shipping it across the Mediterranean to adorn temples on Delos, columns of the Athenian Acropolis, monuments in Alexandria, and the solemn contours of Archaic kouroi statues. Over time, the legacy endured—Venetian castles and Byzantine churches of the medieval era were built with this same stone, standing as fortresses of devotion and defense. Most striking of all is the 10.7-meter unfinished colossus that still lies in the Apollonas quarry—an awe-inspiring testament to both the ambition and limitations of ancient craftsmanship.

Today, Naxos stands as both an open-air museum and a living cultural hub. Its marble industry continues the legacy with refined craftsmanship, and the stone—prized for its durability and historic pedigree—is now a material of choice in the restoration of global heritage sites. Abandoned quarries scattered across the island form a cultural landscape infused with mythology and memory, offering visitors a unique path of exploration. Here, one can trace the contours of ancient quarry marks, stand among temple ruins, and witness the dialogue between past and present—between raw nature and human creativity.