Purple Rain, the new exhibition of oil paintings by Han Qing, coincides with spring in Sydney, bringing the annual blooming of the Jacarandas, when the fine green foliage of this auspicious tree is replaced by a full haze of multiple purple colours. For Han Qing the colour purple becomes a metaphore for optimism, and for healing as symbolically the warming of spring suggests a healing and a fresh start after the pain of deep cold winter darkness. For Prince the author of the song with the same title, it had a spiritual if not apocalyptic meaning, of finding shelter with the one you love, allowing faith and God to guide you through the chaos.

The jacaranda is famous for its purple colours. Purple is a very symbolic colour in a number of cultures and religions. It is the colour in some cultures of funerals, in others of passion and power, or In the Catholic Church, purple (or violet) primarily symbolizes penance, repentance, sorrow, and spiritual preparation, as well as the royalty and majesty of Christ. In Buddhism, purple symbolizes dignity, spiritual depth, restraint, and esoteric realization rather than a single universal doctrine

Purple is not a neutral nor a simple colour but is laden with symbolism and complex in meaning

Purple is a complex colour, between red and blue, and manifests between violet, mauve and magenta. Han Qings palate captures the extraordinary ambiguity of the colour as his paintings seem to float between the complex range of its emotional potential, not singular in perception but refracted through a complex understanding that refuses any singularity. He immerses us into a universe of multiple purple monochromatic experiences, as if drawing the audience into the aura of either the colour purple or into the jacaranda itself, almost as if the viewer is asked to be at one with the jacaranda or to enter and disappear into its colour. In his exhibition the immersive experience is totalizing, beguiling us to believe that nothing else exists beyond the purple rain of the jacaranda, where there is little if no reference to the outside world beyond the jacaranda, or as if nothing exists outside the colour purple or the jacaranda. Other than the purple rain of the jacaranda, the world outside seems absent and ceases to exist in his paintings

His paintings blur the distinction between reality, representation and abstraction. They a at once both representational of reality and abstract, whilst suggesting an almost abstract expressionist engagement with reality. In one sense we understand that these are paintings that focus on the exquisite beauty and joy of the jacaranda season, but strangely their immersive nature not only refuses one of any perspective relational of the world, as one is totally surrounded by the purple haze of the jacaranda,. For Han Qing his paintings transcend the world, and meaning only exists in the abstracted world mediated through the purple haze.

Maybe like Han Qing and Prince, jimmy Hendrix was also acutely aware of the meaning of purple in its  abstract  context when he sang

Purple haze, all in my brain/Lately things they don't seem the same
Actin' funny, but I don't know why/Excuse me while I kiss the sky

Purple haze, all around/Don't know if I'm comin' up or down

Han Qing almost certainly kisses the sky, in his exhibition Purple Rain

Nicholas Tsoutas , curator, Purple Rain