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CHEN PING – Artist's Statement

 

 
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2. The Chinese Code

It is all about humanity.

Modern industrial revolution and technologies have caused irreversible damage to our relationship with the environment. The Chinese ancient lyric pictorial writing remains as a reminder and evidence of how much we lived hand in hand with nature in early civilization. It also vividly pictured aspects of humanity which have endured. We still give selfless love and have a fear of death; We are still destroying each other and have greed and wickedness.

Human cultures appear to have great similarity. The figurative abstract concept , the geometric structure and the Taoist mysticism of Chinese characters are close to those of Mondrian's abstraction and modern Western figurative abstract art. Nevertheless, the Zen way of Chinese calligraphy, with its inward energy and harmony of spontaneity and order, have achieved a philosophical significance contrasting to the highly expressive and mathematical abstractions of Western art.

It has been an emotional journey for me (being of a Chinese origin after living in a Western country and studying Western art for so many years.) to look back at history, examining cultures and more importantly searching for my identity.