The In-Between Gallery
A gathering of artworks with quiet reflections from a finite mind, searching for herself through the works of others.
14 Feb 2026
“Patience is not thrilling. It is, in fact, the capacity to do without excitement, to delay gratification, to stick with what feels boring or bland. Long’s artistic achievement is to integrate these unromantic aspects of patience with an endeavour that charms the imagination…”
— De Botton & Armstrong, 2013
18 July 2024
“the solitary light glows from the deepest depths of darkness is what makes it a truly remarkable source of light”
Peter Birkhäuser’s last painting titled Lynx (1976), he painted it shortly before his death.
Lynx is related to “lux” meaning light. He’s used his lifetime to show his belief of
- Eternalised, 2022
The imagery from this painting draws out intense emotions of pain and resistance. Because he was in the hospital bed surrounded by electric sparks where fear of not being able to escape haunted him badly. Meanwhile, in such extreme state of darkness, there’s array of light glows from the inside out. Lighting up the surroundings, making the pain visible, which is depicted as a scary monster. And now he’s seeing a full picture, with a sense of knowing. Even the picture still appears to be the same picture of suffering, everything on the inside flipped, towards light…
26 August 2024
“Light is a symbol of clarity.
And dark is a symbol of lack-of-clarity ”
- says the physicist Arthur Zajlnc
About the Clear-light mind
We often think the highest state of consciousness is the state of awakening, which is a state exists “outside”, and in Buddhism is called 「the clear-light mind」. Clear refers to clarity and “Light” is synonymous with “awareness”. The “light” here is not an illuminating phenomenon shows in our mind, it’s a “nondual awareness or reflectively aware wisdom” (Holecek, A. 2016)
The concept of reincarnation refers to the infinite creations of our dual awareness in various consciousness forms."How does light look when left entirely to itself?… Absolute darkness!… without an object on which the light can fall, one sees only darkness. Light itself is always invisible. We see only things, only objects, not light”
11 March 2024
Love and rage, conscious and unconscious, order and chaos, trust and abandonment. Bourgeois searched for emotional truth and self-knowledge. She walked between polarities, she made, destroyed, repaired, made again. Her feelings of love was extremely strong and vibrant to an extent she lived two separate mental lives, the light and the dark. The vibrant and the muted…
The Feeding (2007) is a series of Gouache paintings; the three showcased are only a small fraction of it. The series portrays episodes of a newborn baby being fed with its mother’s milk. What’s unsettling about this ostensibly pure and joyful moment, which most of us agree on, is the red color, reminiscent of blood; a disquieting and unfortunate aspect of birth from Bourgeois’ perspective.This theme is also reflected in her other works, which are replete with polarities and lack a middle ground. Her art was looping rather than linear, the two states in opposition bound together however there’re parts of her that trapped in the conscious level of love and unable to escape for a while.
“Why god is love, love is not god”
The idea of God has been misunderstood as an actual human figure for many centuries, in fact god is actually the essence of each of us. The collective being that connecting us together deep down. The idea of“God is love and love is not god” is subtlety depicted in this painting by Louise Bourgeois, although it might not be the exact “God is love” we’re addressing here. But when we look at things mindfully, love exists in all kinds of forms and everywhere. Love is the underlying force that makes the world run, and love could simply be seen as an intention. And how “separation” is an illusion created by the imaginary fears. Fears can be expressed in millions of forms such as anxiety, anger, being defensive and so on…
18 July 2024
When you’re aligned with love
You’re patient,
You’re not rushed and taking your time,
being in the presence.
/
When you’re aligned with fear
You’re impatient,
You’re anxious and defensive,
You’re rushed; non-stop finding “solutions”,
being in the past and future.
We’re spectrum of beings, we shift and change every moment. When we define ourselves as a particular person by our past and future, freedom is gone. If you find yourself out of alignment of love, simply SMILE.
“Get up each day, and live your life as if it is yours alone, because that is the truth of the matter.”
- Spalding. T. L
13 July 2024
By contemplating on such question, probably you’re left with fears or the feeling of “nothingness”, in other words you might feel scared to even imagine such situation or you might think it’s completely meaningless to even think about this. In Louise Bourgeois drawing shown above depicts the idea well.
The process of peeling ourselves off from the “unchangeable reality” that we deeply agree on by pondering over this question daily. When imagining no one else exists but you, meaning the idea of society is gone.
Your truth and the truth about the universe will surface naturally. You realize how different your truth and the socially constructed truth are. You find yourself stop doing many things that you‘ve been doing your whole life, the satisfaction and frustration of that thing disappears simultaneously. What’s else would you see for yourself in this situation?
18 July 2024
Without “Dao,” “De” is hypocritical. “Dao”(The Way) and “De” (Virtue) have long been separated today; only “De” that aligns with “Dao” is truly unified with the universe, embodying a wondrous form of “morality” like the starry sky. (Wei Zhang, 2018)
Dao as source, similar to the orange patch at the center of the painting, while De as manifestation, represented by the lines radiating outward, they complementary. Dao represents the underlying principle of the universe, often seen as an eternal, formless force that governs all things and the source of everything. While, De manifests Dao in the world, De represents Dao, encompassing action, character, and behavior.
没有“道”的“德”是虚伪的，“道”与“德”在今天已经分离很久了，只有合乎“道”的“德”才是真正与宇宙合一、如星空般神奇的“道德”。到了王阳明的时代，“道”已经失落，“德”也不再真实，因此他提出“知行 合一”，意在让“德”回归“道”的本源，两者共同前行。 (張維，2018）
一切唯心造 | Your reality is your belief
This is a sketch by Ketut Liyer (1924 - 2016) that’s drawn once during his meditation. Liyer is a medicine man in Bali, also a spiritualist, and head of a shrine in Pengosekan.
The sketch depicted a perfect form of existence channeling down the the spiritual power to the physical realms.18 July 2024
“This is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it‘s like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know god.”
Ketut Liyer
09 April 2024
Karma is like the expression of every thought and action. Take a look at the painting, the good contains the bad and the bad contains the good, every part is rendered with fluid space. The use of watercolor emphasizing the complicated and uncontrollable nature of karma within our consciousness. And the constant interactions between the good and bad in the painting is also depicting the infinite expressions of life.）
1 December 2024
Magritte’s five paintings in a series titled The Literal Meaning. The words can seem as literal as they appear, leaving the audience to imagine the rest to complete the creation. However, for those who don’t read the same language, the meaning can feel as far from literal as possible. Interestingly, this can make interpretation even more challenging, making the work feel not literal at all. His pieces explore the manipulation of words in relation to our imagination, becoming even more intriguing once we understand their meaning.
The words forêt (forest) and salon (living room) appear in organically shaped frames that lean against an interior wall. The precise lettering, reminiscent of a schoolchild‘s cursive handwriting, is large enough that the words can be appreciated as visual forms rather than just elements of language. (NSW ART GALLERY)
Drawing is a process of self-discovery and self re-alignment, using hands as the extension of the mind to connect the consciousness to the state of awareness. The process is always considered rather important to the author as it evokes deep personal experiences in relation to the drawing. While the end product becomes a portal for audiences to peep into the author’s personal experiences, mysterious and holds infinite possibilities.
“I did not intend to paint any “sea princesses” in my “Pearl”. I wanted to convey the drawing with all reality from which the game of pearl is constructed, and only after when I did several drawings with pencil and charcoal, I saw these princesses when I started to paint with colours.”
- Mikhail Vrubel
Pastel gouache | Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow RussiaMikhail Vrubel is a Russian painter born in 1856, a modernist artist.
A four year old child says
“You can tell how old someone is because when they get older their voice gets darker.”
- Goodsir, K. ,2024
30 August 2024
The child’s description of something invisible is so interesting. The drawings above were the children’s depictions of their own voices. Some are colorful and fluid while some are drier accompanied with a lot of blank spaces.
Most adults show resistance in drawing as they always think they can’t draw. What that actually mean is that they don’t see drawing the way children do. Drawing is just as talking. It’s a way to express and show to yourself what you are like or what emotions that are reflected on the drawing. Because drawing freely without any external references means your inner voice and the hidden self will be exposed fully.
Through each brush stroke, each movement, each pattern, each color and the combination of all. Each trace that’s left on the paper has a link to your deeper consciousness to some extent. Therefore draw like a child again, you will be surprised what drawing can do overtime.