The tigers appearing in Ye’s artworks are not aggressive beasts, but presented more as submissive pets that need to be taken care of. In Gold.Circle.Tiger 02 (2014), a tiger is roaring due to the pain caused by the amber rings that are digging into its skin. Th golden sheen of the rings can be seen reflected on its black-and-white-striped fur. A thin layer of orange paint is also used to create residual images of the exhausted animal. While most of the tigers appearing in Ye’s works are black-striped white tigers, the one in Gold.Circle.Tiger 14 (2014) is covered in striped, light-gold fur. Hanging upside down, the tiger is being suffocated by a round, blue “mask” covering its head. Dripping acrylic lines and chaotic black circles on the hand-painted background add a sense of dreadfulness to the overarching narrative of the suffering tiger.

The commitment seen in Ye’s tiger paintings is equally present in his other works in which the animal motif is absent. Two smaller works, Gold.Circle.Tiger 17 and 18 (both 2014), which share similar atmosphere and composition as the other paintings in the series, are placed side by side in the exhibition. They depict images of irregular black holes outlined by acrylic paint that are like open wounds that cannot be healed, symbolizing the various imperfections in life.

The show also includes two of the five short animations—After the Spelling of the Names of God (2012) and Rotation and Chrysler (2013)—that were featured in the artist’s previous exhibition, “99 Gods” (2013), at Beijing’s Gallery Yang. Both works feature a 3D-animated object rotating vertically, displayed on a framed monitor, with a gold coin and New York’s Chrysler Building as the “protagonists” of the respective videos. In Rotation and Chrysler, other cylindrical objects appear alongside the slowly rotating image of the skyscraper, challenging the viewers’ interpretation of the work in between footages of distorted objects.

Ye’s palette mainly consists of three colors: gold, black and white. The artist, who is of the post-1980s generation, explains in the exhibition’s catalogue that the gold color is referring to the “good” in life. However, the general message of “Gold.Circle.Tiger” is quite heavy. The tigers are possibly a symbol for the ambitions that people possess when they are young, but are repressed as one grows older through regulations forced upon by society. People try to escape from stereotypes and constraints in life, just like the tiger struggles to break free from the golden chain in Ye’s short film. Yet, after a period of time, they will lose their strength to be individual and start to follow the crowd. Like the tiger depicted in Ye’s paintings and animated video, people are continuously trapped in circles—communities, spheres of influence, routines—where freedom can be illusory.

Ye Linghan’s highly imaginative paintings remind people of what the master of surrealism Rene Magritte once said in a radio interview in 1965: “Everything we see hides another thing.” For Ye, the gold color is all that is good in life; circles represent the constraints stopping one from being free; and the tigers are our helpless selves. “Gold.Circle.Tiger” is a powerful cry for the pursuit of freedom in our contemporary rules-oriented society. When leaving the gallery, one must remember that there are always some golden moments in life, and they are worth pursuing no matter how difficult they might be.

“Ye Linghan: Gold. Circle. Tiger” continues at Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong, until September 4, 2014.