The title of the exhibition, “ A Singular Point” (reminiscent of the singularity in the Big Bang Theory), is a most appropriate description of Dong’s practice. According to the traditional Big Bang Theory, our universe began with a singularity, an existence without shape and form, where all matter and energy emerged from before extending into infinity. Similarly, Dong begins each of his marker pen paintings with a single dot on the paper. With ink diffusing slowly through the paper, coupled with the accumulation of time, space and the flow of kinetic energy, an open system is born.

Studying and experimenting how to derive a complete system via the limited character of the material from a singular ink point is the core of Dong’s practice. By controlling time, temperature and humidity, coupled with thousands of attempts, a soft ink dot weaves an interactively restrictive, colliding, limitative web. They are not only orderly but both gentle and strong, displaying a layer of mathematics as well as pictograms with space for imagination. By exercising the limitation of the medium, Dong invents one set of rules after another; once a set of rules has been exhausted, he starts the next adventure on paper. One dot limits the next, indivisible as a dynamic whole. The continuity of the movement is restricted by realistic order.

The “Dust to Dust” series relies on its uncontrollable gravity of color to complete the most mysterious aspect. The process of completing the painting is no longer just a presentation of a visual result, but through the descension of the pastel dust, a thorough and evenly remix of color occurs in the air. This process further decomposes and enhances the idea of painting. The body movement during painting is preserved by the layers of color compressed on its own. Dong yet again starts from one single element – the falling dust to achieve two results, namely the controlled and the uncontrollable; the certainties and the contingencies. Dong discusses the mutual effect of materialistic matter and intentional act during the creation of an artwork. The final results become a proof of the process. Prescription of nature and the innate materialistic is the natural aspect while the aspect of automatisms and self-regulation is the cultural. By provoking the different existing characteristic condition of the medium with the artist’s thinking process, the combination of the natural and cultural creates a balanced mid point between the two extremities. Dong solidifies an idea of creation, not just a mere expression onto paper, but by doing so, the artist creates an experiment, a method, a way of thinking.