A cacophony of sumptuous colour and movement, I'm Free without Identity #03 (2015) is a visceral and enigmatic work by Christine Ay Tjoe. Intricately layering colourful shapes and strong brushwork, the present work writhes with power and emotion, a superlative example of the artist’s celebrated approach to abstraction. Debuting at her group exhibition held at Ota Replica Handbags s, Singapore, in 2016, the present work was exhibited alongside the equally spellbinding We Are Getting Highly Overrated Because You’ve Never Known Us 01 (2016), which is now housed within the collects ion of M+ Museum, Hong Kong. Inky shades of oil bar give way to expressive flashes of red to find a perfect balance between positive and negative space, a tableau of loose gestural marks that coalesces into jostling creatures hidden beneath the surface. Manifesting Ay Tjoe belief that there is a dormant animalistic instinct in every human being that has the potential for both good and bad, these concealed figures express hidden emotions. Pulsating with a special rhythm which reflects the spontaneity and emotional intensity of the artist’s approach, I'm Free without Identity #03 is an electrifying work which reverberates with complex emotions and unbridled energy.

Beginning her career as an artist that worked with the drypoint technique, the present work is a superlative example of the artist’s transition to oil bar. Pulsating with vibrant colour, Ay Tjoe’s use of red has become iconic in her body of work, the visceral and enigmatic colour a symbol of powerful emotions such as passion, violence, rage, but always denoting a central balance between mind, body and soul. Expressing melancholy and struggle, pain and happiness, I'm Free without Identity #03, as the name suggests, is liberated from the ego through the artist’s abstract expression and intuitive approach to image-making. Acting as a window into Ay Tjoe’s inner psyche, these expressive canvases simultaneously shock and enthral with their candid expression of vulnerability. This piece embodies the depths of emotion and vigour that is a hallmark of her work, and serves as an organic, visual snapshot of Ay Tjoe’s artistic and artist identity. As the artist herself reflects, “as far as I know what I do and create… will shape my identity in the future”(Christine Ay Tjoe, quoted in Taba Sanchabakhtiar, “An interview with artist Ay Tjoe Christine”, Wendt Gallery 2010, online). In turn, the painting comes to represent the artist’s navigation of thought, emotion and identity, the internal now made external. Emblazoned with raw, unrestrained gestures, the canvas appears charged with palpable emotion, further heightened by the calm simplicity of the cream background. Ay Tjoe’s placement of delicate washes of pigment seem to spread almost involuntary and uncontrolled, each shape unfurling across the surface. This technique creates shifting light and dark bursts across the negative space, imbuing the canvas with flow and movement. A study in chromatic restraint, here Ay Tjoe’s palette is restricted to single shades of black and red, purposefully chosen to render the sharpest visual juxtaposition. Symbolically representing the conflict between darkness, light and the animalistic, these internal forces ultimately exist in a symbiotic balance. Overlapping and intertwining, each shade can no longer be disentangled from the other, only to create a greater confluence of colour. As such, disparate elements of colour and shape come together in the same space to form a unified whole. In the same humanistic vein, if the canvas reflects the confines of an individual’s self, the spectrum of shades within symbolize all the multitudes a person can contain, however unexpected or contradictory these may be.

The primacy of the line remains a constant in Ay Tjoe’s work, referencing the importance of drawing as the foundation of her painterly works. Trained in graphic design and printmaking at the Bandung Institute of Technology, Ay Tjoe wields a deep understanding of the interaction between line, field and colour. Her early work as a graphic artist allowed her to experiment with many mediums, including dry-point technique and etching. However, the artist soon began expanding the boundaries of the graphic arts to express herself on a larger scale, both in size and complexity, as seen in the present work. Layering soft washes of paint with hard lined and texture left by bars of oil paint, Ay Tjoe’s expressive layering of abstract forms recalls the gestural style of the American abstract expressionists—artists such as Cy Twombly and Joan Mitchell. Delicate layers of expressive shapes vary from light washes to explosive marks, using oil as if it were a pencil; “Well, it doesn’t matter what the medium is, as long as the process is drawing. I will always treat every medium as paper and pencil” (Christine Ay Tjoe, quoted in Allie Biswas, “Christine Ay Tjoe: ‘I will always treat every medium as paper and pencil’”, studio international, 21 December 2018).

Capturing a a t.mes less and incessant internal dialogue that unravels in paint before the viewer, Ay Tjoe’s work reminds us that we as humans can be fragile and strong, passionate and calculated, chaotic and calm, all at the same t.mes . One of Southeast Asia’s leading abstract artists, Christine Ay Tjoe has seen a string of critically acclaimed exhibitions around the world, most notably her recent solo museum exhibition at Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg by Hall Foundation in 2022. In 2019, the artist was awarded with the Asia Arts Game Changer Award, following her major retrospective at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, the year before. Today, her work can be found in prominent institutions around the world, including M+ Museum, Hong Kong; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Singapore Art Museum and National Gallery; and Asia Society Museum, New York.

克 里絲汀·艾珠的《沒有身份的我是自由的 #03》（2015年）是一幅向內求索且高深莫測的作品，綺麗的色彩加上迸發的動感猶如一場齊聲喧囂的藝術奏鳴。色彩豐富的形態和精湛的筆法表現交織成錯綜複雜的層次，力量與情感互相纏繞，令本作成為展現艾珠為人稱道的抽象畫技之上上品。本作在2016年於新加坡大田秀則畫廊舉辦的群展中首次亮相，同場也展出了同樣引人入勝、現為香港M+博物館館藏的《我們獲得過高的評價，皆因你們對我們一無所知 01》（2016年）。在《沒有身份的我是自由的 #03》中，油畫棒的灰墨色陰影風輕雲淡，極富表現力的紅色掠影飛舞飄揚，虛實之間拿揑得恰到好處，畫作中的動勢用筆在奔放流淌之間，收攏成隱匿於畫布下、躁動不安的生命體。這些若隱若現的形體輪廓表達著暗暗流動的情感，也展現艾珠所深信的觀點，她認為所有人類都潛藏著一種野獸的本能，有著可善可惡的可能。一種獨特的節奏在畫作中脈動，反映艾珠創作時的即興手法和強烈情感，複雜的感情和奔騰的能量迴盪其中，讓《沒有身份的我是自由的 #03》成為一幅激起陣陣波瀾的作品。

艾珠以創作針刻法版畫開啟其藝術家生涯，而本作正是她過渡至使用油畫棒期間表現最精彩的例子。畫中殷紅絢爛，奇麗多變，艾珠對紅色的運用已成為她不同作品中極為鮮明的特色；這種深不可測的血肉之色象徵著激情、暴力、憤怒等激烈情感，卻又終究代表著協調思想、身體和靈魂的主導核心。《沒有身份的我是自由的 #03》表達出憂鬱與掙扎、痛苦與幸福，如標題所言，畫作透過艾珠的抽象表現手法和筆隨心動的圖像創作方式解放出來，不再受制於自我的束縛。作為一道窺視艾珠內心的窗口，這些表現力豐富的作品對於脆弱的表達竟如此坦然真誠，令人既感到措手不及，又為之著迷不已。情感和力道是艾珠作品的特色標記，而本作正正體現出深刻複雜的情感和力道，成為一種活生生捕捉艾珠當下的藝術本質和藝術家身份的視覺化寫照。正如艾珠本人的反思：「我所明白的是，我的行為和創作……將會塑造我未來的身份。」（克里絲汀·艾珠，引述自塔巴·桑查巴赫蒂亞（Taba Sanchabakhtiar），〈專訪藝術家克里絲汀·艾珠〉，尹茨畫廊（Wendt Gallery），2010年，網上版）而這幅畫作便呈現了艾珠如何在思想、情感和身份之間穿梭摸索，內在隨之顯現於外。在野性奔放而不受約束的運筆下，滿盈的情感仿佛伸手可碰，而且在柔和簡約的奶白色背景反襯下更顯高漲激昂。艾珠在畫中各處細膩地渲染的顏料仿佛不自覺且不受控地暈散開來，隨之在畫布上開衍出各種形態。這種技巧在虛無中創造出遊移不定的光和向外爆發的灰霾，讓流動感和動態變化貫徹整個畫面。為了研究有條件限制下的色彩呈現，艾珠將本作的色域局限於單色系並特意選用黑色和紅色，透過並置兩者呈現最銳利的視覺對比。各種潛伏的力量猶如代表黑暗、光明和野性本能之間的角力，然而最終都在互相平衡的狀態下共生共存。每種色調相互重疊和交織，無法再細分拆解，僅能走向更龐大的色彩匯流。如是者，各種截然不同的色彩和形狀元素在同一空間中聚集，形成一體化的整體。而再延伸至人文主義的脈絡理解，如果畫布反映了一個人的自我界限，當中的多樣化色調便象徵著那個人可以接納的所有多元差異 ，無論這些差異是有多麼出乎意料或互相矛盾也可以。

線條在艾珠的作品中始終佔據著首要的位置，體現繪圖作為其繪畫性抽象作品之基礎的重要性。艾珠在印尼萬隆理工學院學習平面設計和版畫製作，對於線條、空間和色彩之間的互相影響有著深刻的理解。她早期的平面設計師工作讓她得以試驗多種藝術媒介，包括針刻版畫和蝕刻版畫。然而，艾珠很快便開始跳脫平面設計的界限，進而以更龐大的尺幅和更複雜的作品表達自我，正如本作中所呈現一樣。艾珠將柔和渲染的色彩與油畫棒的冷硬線條和肌理互相堆疊，構成極富表現力的抽象形式，其手法帶有美國抽象表現主義藝術家的色彩，讓人想起賽·托姆布雷和瓊·米切爾等人的動勢繪畫風格。從色彩淡雅的渲染到澎湃迸發的痕跡，一層層表現力豐富的形式堆疊成細膩的層次，連油彩也仿佛變成了用來描繪的鉛筆；「只要過程牽涉繪畫，媒材是甚麼其實並不重要。我始終將每種媒材當作紙筆使用。」（克里絲汀·艾珠，引述自艾莉·比斯華絲（Allie Biswas），〈克里絲汀·艾珠：「我始終將每種媒介當作紙筆使用」〉，《studio international》雜誌，2018年12月21日）

艾珠捕捉了一場永不過時、不曾中斷的內在思辨並以色彩顏料的形式展現在觀者眼前，她的作品提醒著大家，作為人類的我們可以既脆弱又堅強，既熱情純粹又深謀遠慮，既混亂不安又從容沉靜。作為東南亞最主要的抽象藝術家之一，克里絲汀·艾珠在世界各地舉辦過連串的展覽而且好評如潮，尤其是她較近期在2022年於德内堡城堡藝術博物館（Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg）舉辦並由霍爾基金會（Hall Foundation）呈獻的個展。艾珠曾於2019年榮獲「亞洲藝術先鋒藝術家大獎」（Asia Arts Game Changer Award），也在2018年於日本的金澤21世紀美術館舉辦大型回顧展。如今，她的作品獲世界各地的著名藝術機構收藏，當中包括香港M+博物館；紐約大都會藝術博物館；新加坡美術館和新加坡國家美術館；以及紐約亞洲協會博物館。