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Visage of Time: Poetic Response

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What crosses one’s mind when viewing a painting?

Image: Exhibition photo of "Helen," 2024, by Yifan Li. The painting is a 76 x 60 inches work of oil, pastel, and charcoal on canvas. In the foreground of the work the viewer sees two black lines cross, this can be understood as the criss cross frame of a four pane window. This intersection is in the bottom left quadrant of the work. In the top right pane, which takes up a considerable amount of space we see a pinkish peach hue. Throughout the piece, blue, red, and yellow marks create the effect of multiple perspectives, these lines recede into the background and push forward to to the foreground, closer than the frame itself. Depending on the angle and time when engages with the work, different associations and images arise from the work. Photo courtesy of Goldfinch Gallery.
Image: Exhibition photo of “Helen,” 2024, by Yifan Li. The painting is a 76 x 60 inches work of oil, pastel, and charcoal on canvas. In the foreground of the work the viewer sees two black lines cross, this can be understood as the criss cross frame of a four pane window. This intersection is in the bottom left quadrant of the work. In the top right pane, which takes up a considerable amount of space we see a pinkish peach hue. Throughout the piece, blue, red, and yellow marks create the effect of multiple perspectives, these lines recede into the background and push forward to to the foreground, closer than the frame itself. Depending on the angle and time when engages with the work, different associations and images arise from the work. Photo courtesy of Goldfinch Gallery.

What follows are words I wrote while I recalled the associations I felt when viewing Yifan Li’s work at Goldfinch Gallery on November 10th. Intrigued by the artist’s understanding of the “afflictions of time” and her marks’ engagement with yearning and memory, I responded to the works over a series of three months. Each time I sat down to write I attempted to remember my initial visceral reactions, while also allowing free-association to guide the ekphrastic poems. 

…

Image: Installation photo of Helen, 2024, by Yifan Li during the opening exhibition Visages of Time at Goldfinch Gallery. Optional to include: Photo only shows right third of the work. Patterns of light from the afternoon sun shine in the upper right corner of the work. There is a small parallelogram that shines onto the exhibition wall. Sunlight dapples in the small corner to the right of the wall. A pocket of light reveals a bouquet on a raw wooden shelf. Photo by Joan Roach.
Image: Installation photo of Helen, 2024, by Yifan Li during the opening exhibition Visages of Time at Goldfinch Gallery. Photo only shows right third of the work. Patterns of light from the afternoon sun shine in the upper right corner of the work. There is a small parallelogram that shines onto the exhibition wall. Sunlight dapples in the small corner to the right of the wall. A pocket of light reveals a bouquet on a raw wooden shelf. Photo by Joan Roach.

Tuesday 11/26
Helen, 2024

Koolaid lithography
I forget the fixative

Dogs bark at the cars passing
Mouths agape at the indecency 
They too are mountains, with 
Offensive cliffs in a cold shrouded landscape.

off in the background, a racket held high 

That *****What a racket!
She’s far off, high on the heels 
Gaining speed as days draw closer to
The play at hand. 

A beautiful mind we scrape at the window 

I’m sorry I let you down.
You weren’t so far away, but it felt 
Ships pass in the night, but more so
Spent rattletraps, their end trails are dipped paints
Fuel Engines that shouldn’t meet the city’s emission thresholds.

trying to cater to that moment again 
where the Sun shown 
just write on the upper right corner of you 
perfect in eyes
Apple of my
a face every mother would love. 

.

Image: Exhibition photo of Eros I, 2024, by Yifan Li. Work is a 36 x 24 inches sized oil and pastel painting. Upon first glance, the work is a painterly and dappled abstract work of butter yellow, white, rose, mauve, with little moments of muted red and grey blue. Soft white and red parks bring some paths and shapes out of the background. As you look, certain structures and pathways appear. Photo courtesy of Goldfinch Gallery.
Image: Exhibition photo of Eros I, 2024, by Yifan Li. Work is a 36 x 24 inches sized oil and pastel painting. Upon first glance, the work is a painterly and dappled abstract work of butter yellow, white, rose, mauve, with little moments of muted red and grey blue. Soft white and red parks bring some paths and shapes out of the background. As you look, certain structures and pathways appear. Photo courtesy of Goldfinch Gallery.

Monday, 1/6
Eros I 


As I glean past on my fuji 
Each reflective
smears of light, a bright cross in periphery. 
thankful for paths, beaten and untread 
Where we might cross one another
Racing further and further home, to some ideal 

To some safety after so much joy and freedom
a childhood summer day without my father’s anger. 

But—I am catching up to you! 
You’re far off in the distance,
A promise of understanding, I knew once
Once knew

I know we’ll get together soon 
hang out even 
Hold hands 

When we’re both free.

.

Image: Exhibition photo of Eros II, 2024, by Yifan Li. Work is a 36 x 24 inches sized oil and pastel painting. In the left third of the work, soft masses and shapes of pink and red arise. The middle and right thirds of the work are blue and yellow colorations. Divided between the bottom left and middle thirds is a red mass that seems to push out from a series of intersecting white and red markations. It seems to form a faint pucker, the shape of lips. White and red marks form a sort of criss cross pattern, reminiscent of a fence. Photo courtesy of Goldfinch Gallery.
Image: Exhibition photo of Eros II, 2024, by Yifan Li. Work is a 36 x 24 inches sized oil and pastel painting. In the left third of the work, soft masses and shapes of pink and red arise. The middle and right thirds of the work are blue and yellow colorations. Divided between the bottom left and middle thirds is a red mass that seems to push out from a series of intersecting white and red markations. It seems to form a faint pucker, the shape of lips. White and red marks form a sort of criss cross pattern, reminiscent of a fence. Photo courtesy of Goldfinch Gallery.

Sunday, 1/5
Eros II A.

See her escape under the thicket
Tufts of blush fur 
bulge out around bars of chain-linked fence,
A hare has made it across the boundary line!

It’s been days since a rabbit was run over on Eros Lane.


Eros II B.

Pulp pushes, wisps of light
I remember it pink and red, hot from your hand,
A prominence left by tread marks over raw skin.
Trying to let the badness out 
Matriarchs say that’s what pain was

I hope for a yellowing, acid green even

Rejoice at neon ponds below the screen.

* * *


Yifan Li’s exhibition The Visage of Time was on view at Goldfinch Gallery in Chicago from November 10 – December 21, 2024.

About the author: Joan Roach (he/they) is a Chicago-based educator, curator, arts writer, and poet. They focus on sculptural, textual, and performance-based art that is concerned with everyday material reality. He works full-time as an Art History & Diverse Learning Teacher for Chicago High School for the Arts. They write for their friends sometimes & will publish “Nothing Special,” their first book of poetry and photography, in 2025.

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