Khang Nguyễn's paintings are based on various philosophical ideas and approaches that seek to attain insights into certain undisclosed domains of being, knowing and time that exceed subjective faculties. In essence, his paintings are diagrams that investigate and express the nature of primordial awareness, such as nonduality (advaita, अद्वैत),
unbounded nonlocality (ka dag chen po, ཀ་དག་ཆེན་པོ), trans-conceptuality (nirvikalpa, निर्विकल्प), clear undifferentiated light (prakāśa, प्रकाश), fullness (pūrṇaṃ, पूर्ण), vibration (spanda, स्पन्द), supreme word (para-vāk, परवाक्), reflexivity or self-consciousness (vimarśa, विमर्श) and self-recognition (pratyabhijñā, प्रत्यभिज्ञा).
Nonduality in this sense refers to the universal light of self-awareness (prakasha-vimarsha, प्रकाश विमर्श) that is not differentiated into the ontic and epistemic mode of subject and object perception. This nonduality is a state of reflexivity, that is, it is awareness of awareness itself rather than its internal and external contents. Furthermore, to know itself it must embody and be indistinguishable from what it knows, hence the distinctions between knower and known as well as ontology and epistemology are inapplicable. What reflexive awareness knows is not a particular being’s nature but the universal, innermost nature of Absolute awareness. This implies that nondual awareness is neither solipsistic nor localized, meaning it is not isolated within the confines of subjective consciousness. Rather, it is a pervasive field that encompasses all entities, thus it is not bounded to any specific entity or point located in spacetime. Moreover, reflexive awareness is trans-conceptual and trans-subjective, meaning it is an epistemological mode of awareness that underlies conceptual understanding, logical progression, sensory perception and emotive states. Lastly, the universal light (prakasha) of consciousness, which underlies manifest reality, and its power of reflexive awareness (vimarsha) are not separate polarities but form two aspects of one field. That is to say the nature of light is self-awareness. The power of self-recognition has sparked and is always sparking the primordial light to pulsate (spanda) and sound forth (vak), ceaselessly overflowing into and as manifestation. That manifestation is the totality of beings, which is an expression but not fully exhaustive of the luminous, vibrational and sonorous power of self-recognition (pratyabhijñā).
Nguyễn creates a semiotic system that translates and compresses nondual cosmologies and philosophies to forms of diagrammatic symbolism, which explore numerous ways to explicate the nature of dualistic perception and the inherent field of nondual awareness as well as how the latter can become accessible. To be more specific, the diagrams inquire how the perceiver, upon closely contemplating and visualizing the symbolic language, can be incited to gain insights into the nature of conscious perception together with the underlying field from which it originates. Furthermore, by attending in this manner, he believes there is a possibility for the mind to be spontaneously released from the recognizable contents of consciousness such that there is an unoccupied space for the direct recognition of and identification with one's fundamental nature. This is central to his investigation of visual media's capacity to evoke an unmediated awareness that is free from thought-constructions.
unbounded nonlocality (ka dag chen po, ཀ་དག་ཆེན་པོ), trans-conceptuality (nirvikalpa, निर्विकल्प), clear undifferentiated light (prakāśa, प्रकाश), fullness (pūrṇaṃ, पूर्ण), vibration (spanda, स्पन्द), supreme word (para-vāk, परवाक्), reflexivity or self-consciousness (vimarśa, विमर्श) and self-recognition (pratyabhijñā, प्रत्यभिज्ञा).
Nonduality in this sense refers to the universal light of self-awareness (prakasha-vimarsha, प्रकाश विमर्श) that is not differentiated into the ontic and epistemic mode of subject and object perception. This nonduality is a state of reflexivity, that is, it is awareness of awareness itself rather than its internal and external contents. Furthermore, to know itself it must embody and be indistinguishable from what it knows, hence the distinctions between knower and known as well as ontology and epistemology are inapplicable. What reflexive awareness knows is not a particular being’s nature but the universal, innermost nature of Absolute awareness. This implies that nondual awareness is neither solipsistic nor localized, meaning it is not isolated within the confines of subjective consciousness. Rather, it is a pervasive field that encompasses all entities, thus it is not bounded to any specific entity or point located in spacetime. Moreover, reflexive awareness is trans-conceptual and trans-subjective, meaning it is an epistemological mode of awareness that underlies conceptual understanding, logical progression, sensory perception and emotive states. Lastly, the universal light (prakasha) of consciousness, which underlies manifest reality, and its power of reflexive awareness (vimarsha) are not separate polarities but form two aspects of one field. That is to say the nature of light is self-awareness. The power of self-recognition has sparked and is always sparking the primordial light to pulsate (spanda) and sound forth (vak), ceaselessly overflowing into and as manifestation. That manifestation is the totality of beings, which is an expression but not fully exhaustive of the luminous, vibrational and sonorous power of self-recognition (pratyabhijñā).
Nguyễn creates a semiotic system that translates and compresses nondual cosmologies and philosophies to forms of diagrammatic symbolism, which explore numerous ways to explicate the nature of dualistic perception and the inherent field of nondual awareness as well as how the latter can become accessible. To be more specific, the diagrams inquire how the perceiver, upon closely contemplating and visualizing the symbolic language, can be incited to gain insights into the nature of conscious perception together with the underlying field from which it originates. Furthermore, by attending in this manner, he believes there is a possibility for the mind to be spontaneously released from the recognizable contents of consciousness such that there is an unoccupied space for the direct recognition of and identification with one's fundamental nature. This is central to his investigation of visual media's capacity to evoke an unmediated awareness that is free from thought-constructions.
