Jing You: Syzygy oil painting contemporary art

Jing You: Syzygy

2025 DEC 13 – 2026 JAN 11

Resonance of Soul Frequencies and the Score of Time: Jing You’s Solo Exhibition Traces the Paths of Encounter in Syzygy

Hiro Hiro Art Space is honored to present Syzygy, the inaugural solo exhibition by artist Jing You, on view from December 13, 2025, to January 11, 2026.

Borrowed from astronomy, the term syzygy refers to the moment when the Sun, Moon, and Earth align in a straight line. Jing You employs this celestial alignment to reveal the exhibition’s central theme: the fated encounters and the harmonic resonance between souls. In her hands, the imageries of people, time, and emotion—the heart-shaped seeds of the Compass Plant, bougainvillea from past memories, the restless humidity after a thunderstorm, the searing scarlet red, melodies composed by time on the musical staves, and pistils transformed into swans—become a macroscopic order that synthesizes inner stirrings and cosmic laws.

From this cosmic perspective, her work then draws the viewer back to the emotional specifics embedded in individual forms. Jing You employs flowers as microcosmic reflections of the human heart. Their varied temperaments—lush, faint, vibrant, and subtle—delicately trace the veiled and intricate emotional landscapes of human relationships. Souls with the same frequency attract and resonate, eventually co-creating their own “Interpersonal Gardens of Destiny.”

This notion of the “Garden” also echoes Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges’ The Garden of Forking Paths, with the visual motifs responding to the allegory of diverging time, choice, and infinite possibility: every encounter stands as a crossroads of destiny, branching into another timeline.

The Compass Plant: The Dictionary Page Unlocking the Symbol System

Before stepping into this extending, philosophical garden, Jing You offers the viewer a key to its core.

The introductory work of this exhibition, Compass Plant on the Stave, defines the conceptual and symbolic framework: Person (Compass Plant), Time (Stave/Horizontal Lines), and Resonating Frequency (Love/Heart).

The work features the Compass Plant, a symbol of “Love” in ancient Greek legend. Its heart-shaped seed not only suggests the origin of the heart icon but also metaphorically captures the soul’s instinctive perception of heart-to-heart resonance. The horizontal stave lines denote the flow of time. Placing the flower upon this musical score signifies that life is composed by time, establishing a melody for the chapter of each relationship: at times sustained into harmonious chords, at others gradually diminishing to a rest. Every resonance of inner frequency between souls forms a movement in the symphony of destiny. As the “dictionary page” of the entire series, Compass Plant on the Stave indicates that to understand these Interpersonal Gardens of Destiny, the viewer must first learn the symbolic grammar of each flower and each score—of people, time, and love.

Jing You 油畫油彩藝術品 oil painting art — *Compass Plant on the Stave,* 2025 / Oil on linen / 40 x 74 cm

Syzygy Op.1-73: The Infinite Variation on the Score of Time

The work Syzygy embodies the ultimate alignment of “Person, Time, and Love” along a single axis, achieved through the corresponding structure of the white Compass Plant (Sun), the central black sphere (Moon), and the innermost heart (Earth). This alignment marks the precious and profound moment of encounter at the Syzygy. The central heart-seed extends to become the main flower motif throughout the series, referring to the heart as the organ of perception and resonance.

The series Syzygy Op.1-73 is named using classical music’s cataloging method, where the “Opus number” becomes a temporal philosophy. Each Interpersonal Garden (Opus) forms a unique emotional movement, further hinting at the relationship’s multiple, non-linear variations along the time axis.

Within these gardens, color, brushwork, and composition act as musical expression terms—tempo and dynamics—where every emotional fluctuation and intensity corresponds to a tiny forking path in Borges’ labyrinth. The artist thereby posits: within the macroscopic, destined trajectory, every microscopic choice (forking path) opens into a relational reality with its unique speed and rhythm. These are all coded, permissible existences within the Garden of Destiny, collectively composing the infinite symphony of fate.

For instance, Op. 1 Verdancy symbolizes soul-awakening and renewed perception; Op.3 Rainy Days of Summer evokes the sensitivity and ambiguity of a relationship’s early stage; and Op.9 Saudade responds to the Portuguese term saudade, referring to “a presence of loss and longing preserved in the heart,” symbolizing understanding and release after loss. Through these works, Jing You renders the nuanced, ineffable, yet deeply felt emotions that unfold across time.

Farewell to the Beloved: Awakening in the Constancy of Existence

In the “Swan Pistil” series, floral forms merge with the imagery of swan pistils to explore the nature of emotional connection. Inspired by the Buddhist concept of duḥkha (pain), specifically “separation from the beloved,” these works view separation as the constancy of existence. Only those who truly love can perceive the counterpoint between love and parting.

This awareness shifts the viewer’s perspective from the celestial orbits to the most intrinsic self; just as the work Moonstone reflects, the imagery of the moon reminds us that true strength does not come from external gravitational pull, but from the individual’s discovery of inner power through relentless self-reflection within the labyrinth of thought.

From the cosmic alignment of Syzygy to the deep resonance of the inner heart, Jing You’s Syzygy transforms metaphysical order into a readable emotional code. Through flowers, the sequence of classical music, the temporal structure of the stave, and Borges’ forking labyrinth, she assigns a perceptible framework for the convergence of love, time, and separation. Within Syzygy, these symbols—and the relationships they embody—finally find their coordinates.

Jing You

Jing You is a Taiwanese artist. Between 2014 and 2020, she was active as a fashion illustrator, collaborating with international brands and magazines before subsequently shifting her focus to fine art creation.

Jing You integrates the methodology of Translation Studies, which she majored in at university, into her creative practice, viewing painting as a cross-media translative tool that converts complex internal experiences into a legible visual language for others. She argues that most human predicaments stem from the communication failure caused by abstract emotions that cannot be accurately described. Therefore, the artist’s purpose is to provide an aesthetically refined translation, serving as a precise communication medium between people.

To this end, Jing You’s work realizes the aesthetic experience she defines as “Aura.” This is an existence that cannot be seen, heard, or touched, but can be felt—a non-possessive atmosphere and energy field. She translates ineffable emotions by creating new visual symbols, such as assemblage and hybrid imagery, thus avoiding the interference of existing cultural baggage. By seeking balance between “Fidelity” (internal honesty) and “Clarity” (legibility for others), Jing You establishes a creative path that transforms abstract sentiment into concrete, visible forms.

Works