Overlay series continues the artist’s method of mechanical painting; these new works also weaken the sense of movement in his past paintings created by changes in mechanical tracks. These paintings are more fixed and solemn, stressing subtle gradations in color and a more dedicated control over material. He mixes a large amount of acrylic medium into his paint, such that they accumulate on the canvas into a captivating, gelatinous, semi-translucent coloration. The two overlapping layers of pigment form a granulated structure that reflects external light, while semi-translucence between graduated colors forms an internal halation.

Xie Molin uses computers and machines as creative tools to contemplate the creative possibilities of painting. It is also a means of painting chosen by the artist in the age of technology. Distancing himself from figurative modes of expression, Xie employs a triaxial linkage painting machine he invented in combination with workmanlike, meticulous, manual operation. With precise control, the artist attains a certain feeling of stability through a sense of order. For Xie, the meaning of “painting machine” as an extension of the painter’s hands is clearly more important, and his use of the “machine” is not so much in a conceptual sense as it is derived from his precise formal expression and demands.In Xie Molin’s art, “machines” can not only be used by artists to replace traditional tools and explore new forms of painting as a mode of creative expression, but more broadly correspond to contemporary Chinese culture’s multi-imagination of the inherent possibilities of new technology.

(Edited by Lijie Wang & Miao Zijin)