2016/11.26-12.18, Waley Art.
Artist Self-Narrative
Miniature things do not necessarily refer to trivial things, nor do they imply lack of noticeability. One Buddhist Koan says, “A mustard seed can accommodate Mount Meru;”[1] British poet William said, “To see a world in a grain of sand;”[2] both sayings express how the smallest of places can contain the largest of worlds. Thus, what “miniature things” refer to cannot be quantified by sizes of physical nature. Moreover, “things” refer not only to man-made objects, but also to natural objects; when we speak of observations of “things,” we are speaking of how humans subjectively observe the outside world.
In my past artworks, the method I applied most often was taking realistic things and recreating them as miniature models. A model is like a “microcosmic universe;” the way humans choose to spectate things or the outside world through miniature model forms are meant to recreate the circumstance with substituted objects; the modeled objects themselves also convey a comprehensive understanding and intention to control. City models express a “not yet” state; they are “imaginations towards the future.” In my city-themed artworks, things such as houses, moving vehicles, or strolling pedestrians all have their own space, and the city of my memories are a congruence of such trivial and fragmented spaces.
The artworks in this exhibition can be categorized into two aspects – the first depicts the “man-made,” which are realistic sceneries created with miniature things; the second pertains to the “natural,” which are miniaturized reconstructions of nature. Both of them involve my own perceptions and interpretations of my surroundings as an artist; whenever I lay my eyes for observations, I am already choosing fragments from the world. Images provide us with more than mere memories – they are selective memories; likewise, visual sceneries provided by images are only selective sceneries. Yet what “miniature things” refer to are parts of a whole, details of a complete picture, and the tiniest things in the vast – but still they are belong to a bigger unity. And this proves how we cannot know what the so-called “whole picture” is or, in other words, we can only put our mixed disarray of impressions together and try to conceive a whole picture that is comprehensible to us.
[1] “Mount Meru can accommodate a mustard seed; a mustard seed can accommodate Mount Meru.” Vimalakirti Sutra.
[2] “To see a world in a grain of sand.” William Blake, Auguries of Innocence.