Che Jianquan Water Scroll

Tokyo Gallery + BTAP (Beijing) will present artist Che Jianquan’s solo exhibition Water Scroll from September 13 to November 1, 2025.

At its core, this exhibition features two bodies of moving-image works rooted in geography and history: Pavilion and Water Scroll. Through the myriad forms of water, these works connect the cultural memories of Lushan and Kinmen across time and space, paying homage to the Southern Song painter Ma Yuan’s Water Studies. Using a meditative visual language, this exhibition explores water as both a vehicle of time and a witness to history, prompting reflection on nature, humanity, and memory. By gazing at water, we look back at the historical transformations that once unfolded in these places, and on the vast map, sketch the expansive imaginary space behind a single point of geography. Water is not only the protagonist of the image, but also the silent witness of time.

Pavilion series began in 2003, compiles footage captured at a pavilion shrouded in mist at the heart of Ruqin Lake in Lushan. The site was once the place where poet Bai Juyi longed to retreat in his later years, and beneath the lake lie the submerged ruins of the Daling Temple in Eastern Jin period — a monastery of great importance in Chinese Buddhist history, which has only survived through its reflections in the water and fragmented texts. Through Che’s lens, the artist captures the layers of time beneath the rippling water, weaving together the poetic resonance of tradition with the contemporary site to form an “water elegy.”

Water Scroll series turns toward the waters of the Xiamen–Kinmen Bay and China’s Kinmen Island. This sea has borne witness to Kinmen’s long history: the boats of mainland migrants in the Eastern Jin sailing off, the flourishing culture inspired by Zhu Xi’s teachings in the Southern Song, and the heroic voyage of Zheng Chenggong who set sail from here in the late Ming to recover Taiwan. It also saw the smoke and fire of cross-strait confrontations in modern times, and later, the smoke fading as Kinmen transformed from a military frontline into a bridge of exchange between the two sides. The sea rises and falls with each sunrise and sunset, shifting colors with changing light. By capturing the sea, the film records Kinmen’s distinctive granite coastlines and abandoned military traces, while also suggesting that memories of conflict ebb away with the tides. Today, the site has become a destination for visitors. The sea remains as the storyteller of the island’s history.

Che Jianquan’s works in this exhibition are inspired by copying Ma Yuan’s Water Studies in his youth. The twelve renderings of water in Ma Yuan’s paintings became the origin of his visual language. The exhibition reconstructs the dynamics of water through digital media, while extending notions of “empty space” and “projected realm” of traditional ink painting: the mists of Lushan’s lake resemble washes of ink on paper, and the waves of Kinmen likens to surging colors. Concurrently, paintings echoing the video works will also be on view. This exhibition opens on September 13, 2025, at 3:00 pm, and all are warmly invited to attend.