Solo Show at the Today Art Museum, Beijing

A Rebellion Towards Elegance

“Art has always, in all cultures, had a link with the theatre, and, still more so, with the making of magic – with the process of transporting the spectator into a different realm. This is particularly the case with Hugo Dalton’s work. He is a maker of projections, but his artistic range extends well beyond this single technique. Recently, in London, he collaborated with Christopher Wheeldon’s international dance company Morphoses. Several reviewers pointed out that Dalton’s scenic projections represented a revival of the eclectic, experimental spirit of the Ballets Russes, as this existed in the 1920s, after Diaghilev’s severance from Russia.

One of the striking things about the Ballets Russes, in this second phase of their existence, was the lightness of touch of the designers, and a general sense of unforced elegance that still remained true to the experimental spirit of Modernism. This quality is also typical of Hugo Dalton’s work, and, fascinatingly, it meshes with something that lies at the very heart of the Chinese sensibility.

As commentators on Chinese culture have always been at pains to note, it is the image of nature rather than the image of man that lies at the core of the Chinese visual arts, and which also informs Chinese poetry. The worship of the natural is linked to what is sophisticated, and often highly artificial.

The element that Dalton adds to this is his mastery of technological means, though the directness and simplicity with which he obtains his effects is also very much part of his art. He sees no need to complicate when simple things – a simple as the touch of the Chinese brush – will do what is required. What one has here is something radical that is not afraid to have, and even to stress, a relationship with tradition. A rebellion towards elegance is something that I personally find sympathetic.”

Edward Lucie-Smith