‘Being - A Poetic Understanding of Art and Humanity’
Name: Monica Tong Programme: Ceramics & Glass Year: 2020 Tutor: Chris Fite-Wassilak Word count: 6796
Table of Content
List of Illustration Introduction
Page 3 4-5
Chapter One - Creation
6-10
Chapter Two - Memory
11-13
Chapter Three - Purpose
14-18
Chapter Four - Being
19-38
Bibliography
39-41
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List of Illustrations
Figure 1. Unknown Yin Yang Tai Chi Symbol http://chienergy.co.uk/yin-yang/ Figure 2. Unknown Cherishing something old and broken Photographer Unknown www.pinterest.cl/pin/530228556132539266/ Figure 3. Piano Busker AJ Hickling Streets to Steinway, 2018 Courtesy of The Artist Figure 4. Sun Yue Fall, 170×150×100cm, Porcelain, 2012 Courtesy of The Artist Figure 5. Sun Yue Passing Away, 30×30cm, fresh flowers and porcelain, 2014 Courtesy of The Artist Figure 6. Sam Bakewell Installation of a pseudo-shamanic hut, Imagination Dead Imagine, 2015 British Ceramics Biennial Figure 7. Sam Bakewell Of Beauty Reminiscing, porcelain; 5x3x2cm, 2015 British Ceramics Biennial 2015 AWARD Figure 8. Phoebe Cummings Triumph of the Immaterial, raw clay, 2017, Woman's Hour Craft Prize, Crafts Council UK Photo by Sylvain Deleu.
Figure 9. Monica Tong Sound of Porcelain, porcelain, 2020 Video link: https://vimeo.com/396156303 Figure 10. Monica Tong Breathe, ceramics and water, 2020 Video link: https://vimeo.com/396157424 Figure 11. Monica Tong Harmony, porcelain and walnut wood, 2020 Video link:https://vimeo.com/396157306 Figure 12. Teshima Art Museum Photographer Unknown Courtesy of teshima Art Museum Figure 13. James Turrell Installation view, James Turrell, February 11 Aug 14, 2020 Courtesy of the Pace Gallery, London © James Turrell. Photo by: Damian Griffiths. Figure 14. JamesTurrell The Light Inside, Neon and Ambient Light, 1999 Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston ©James Turrell Figure 15. Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013, Courtesy of The Broad Museum Figure 16. Zen Garden, The Huntington Library, California, 2019 Photo by: Monica Tong
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Introduction
Being in time and space is the basic element artists work with. Whether you know it or not, you live it and breathe it like air. Philosophers think about it, poets write about it, artists express it through various mediums. For me, it is a journey of investigation that I have been on for a few years. Exiting a ‘successful’ corporate life in conventional terms, I search for the deeper meaning of life - the essence of being and existence. Many answers are to be discovered while more questions are raised as I try to dig deeper. Having grown up and lived in both Eastern and Western cultures, I have turned to ancient Greek and East Asian philosophies for wisdom. Fortunately, art found me on this journey, or as I called it - a salvation and a grounding medium for me to connect with and view this complex world. On this journey, I discovered paths were laid by so many ancestors in history, philosophy, science, humanity and new paths are being explored every day. Through changing time and social development, some paths are in debate and some still stand strong. I have learned that the ultimate goal is not about seeking the truth, but an adventure both outwards and inwards. By practicing art on this journey, there are the being, thinking and making. Each state weighs equally important and influences each other. This could be a life-long journey. However, in this dissertation, I wish to diarise the discoveries during this particular period of my life, which is also an unprecedented time in the modern days - a world-wide crisis - ‘covid-19 pandemic’.
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To me, life always exists in the cycle of birth and death. There is no absolute order nor permanence. It costs us a pandemic to be reminded, to pause and reflect on different aspects of life, to go down to the roots of being and existence through our lived experience. In the book ‘Being and Time’ by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, he addresses that ‘being is time’ and ‘being towards death’ as any natural being exists in the temporal duration between birth and death.1 Therefore, I am diarising the passage of time as an observer with questions on being, from the perspective of objects, people and their surrounding environment. I also attempt to exercise this writing in a poetic way, in the same way of my art practice to document the process of so-called ‘becoming who one is’ by Nietzsche2. It is a rhythmatic documentation of a temporal duration with childhood memory flashbacks and momentary perception at present. What is it like to observe the world In fragments and abstraction, metaphysics through its existence? What is it like to experience being present, zen-ness, stillness, emptiness, transience/eternal, Yin/Yang And all things between the binary As a being but not limited to a human being? Though this writing is a light touch on a broad topic, it is simply written from my thoughts and experiences in order to find a poetic way of living in the mundane, to find the silver-lining to keep going and becoming oneself. As Bergson describes, there are two different selves, the fundamental self which is our inner state as living things and the social representation which is the external projection of the other; only the former is free.3
1
Martin Heidegger, John Macquarrie, and Edward Robinson, Being and Time (Malden Blackwell, 2013). Alexander Nehamas, Nietzsche : Life as Literature (Cambridge (Ma) ; London: Harvard University Press, Cop, 2002). 3 Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will : An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness (Whitefish, Mt: Kessinger Publishing, 2011), p. 231 (p. 231). 2
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Chapter One - Creation
16/10/1994 The apartment complex is called the Great Wall Building. Just like its name, the design of the building is long and narrow. There is a long corridor running across each floor. Outside each unit across the corridor, there is a balcony that some use as a garden patch. From unit 1101, there lives a 7 year old girl often gathering sand and mud using her tiny hands. She would put them into a bucket then pour them onto the balcony. That is her playground, her land, her Kingdom. She would construct walls and towers, then the entire castles connected by bridges. Of course, there would be a moat on the outer skirt of the Kingdom as the first line of defence and a canal for transportation inside the Kingdom. The intertwined topography is activated by the flow of water. What a sophisticated architecture! I know it was embedded in her mind then. There was this satisfaction. A masterpiece capturing a fraction of time and being.
10/1/2010
‘Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?’ was titled for a painting by French artist Paul Gauguin in Tahiti while he was searching for primitive answers. Many artists have gone through the same phase of contemplating on this big question of our being and our relationship to the Universe at some point. Ancient Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu (born 4-6th Century BC) addressed the start of the Universe in Tao Te Ching, chapter 42 being: The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things. All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they have come), and go forward to embrace the Brightness (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonised by the Breath of Vacancy.4
4
Laozi and James Legge, The Tao Te Ching (Simon & Brown, 2018).
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Lao-tzu from 2500 years ago suggested all things are connected in the Universe as one/unity/consciousness. ‘Tao’ ( /dào/: the way) consists of two conflicting, complementary and interdependent forces of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang coexist everywhere in nature, such as the masculum and feminine energies, the positive and negative spaces, birth and death, day and night, light and shadow. The third element refers to ‘Chi’ ( /qì/: life force or energy flow). The interaction between Yin and Yang produces all possibilities in the Universe. The energy exchanges between two opposite dualities also forms harmonised wholeness. Yin and Yang support each other, regulate each other, and transform into each other.5
道
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Fig. 1 | Yin Yang Tai Chi Symbol6
This philosophy can also be tested in Cosmology, Mathematics and Colour Theory. The symbol of Yin and Yang is a circle formed by two interdependent counterparts, the black and white representing each paradox such as the dark and light. Through different wavelengths of light in refraction, Newton discovered colour prism. As artists we learned that with three primitive colours red, yellow and blue, we can mix them into thousands of different varieties.7
5
Jason Gregory, Effortless Living : Wu-Wei and the Spontaneous State of Natural Harmony (Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2018). 6 Yin Yang Tai Chi Symbol <http://chienergy.co.uk/yin-yang/> [accessed 20 June 2020]. 7 Josef Albers, Interaction of Color. [2], Kommentar (Starnberg: Keller, 1973).
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4/10/2015 Tao Te Ching, Chapter 2 Being and non-being produce each other. Difficulty and ease bring about each other. Long and short delimit each other. High and low rest on each other. Sound and voice harmonize each other. Front and back follow each other. Therefore the sage abides in the condition of unattached action. And carries out the wordless teaching. Here, the myriad things are made, yet not separated.8 It seems that incredible creations always had the force from makers’ deliberate intention and the power of nature. The vitality within me always grows and blossoms against the force of control. It just seems to be too disappointing to be expected, like a rebeliant teenager, always wants to surprise the world. However, I will somehow surrender and fall back into the laws of nature. I enjoy the liberty of my maker, letting me be whatever I want to be. Even though there are days I feel lazy by purely following the instructions, The road least travelled is always more adventurous. We dance together, with the flow of the yin and the yang, Hand in hand with heads in the air. The opposite forces will take turns, Interplay and once find its balance of co-existence. There will be beauty appearing in between. On this note, nature and I are one.
15/1/2018 Only in recent years, I realised the taste towards beauty has shifted. Modernity, industrialisation and bauhaus movement satisfied human’s senses by being perfect, exact, symmetrical, and geometrical. Perhaps like fashion or any other being with its own cycle of life, it comes to a period when imperfections are being celebrated and uniqueness are treasured. I see human senses are being tickled, when they see flowers just started to open and flare or a raindrop runs down the veins of a leaf almost leaving the tip. In Japanese philosophy, the way of living is called ‘wabi-sabi’. 8
Laozi and Legge.
8
It gives power to letting go, and for makers or viewers to enjoy this aesthetics is to empty out their mind, echoing ‘Zazen’ in Buddhism.9 As artist/potter Bernard Leach’s close friend - Soetsu Yanagi once said, “we enjoy those pots most which are born and not made”.10 Zen is inner peace. Zen is Life. Zen is becoming oneself.
21/5/2019 Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, Impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional.11 The industrialisation and materialistic world has been feeding people with modern, perfectly made goods. There are always newer and better things. Huge amounts of waste are going into landfills everyday, from product development to defects and post consumption. Always wanting more and never enough, people are trapping themselves in the rat race. As a human being, each of us is unique, imperfect, and temporarily habitating on this planet for a short while. Under all things we own and wear, who we really are, what makes us human, and how our senses respond to beauty around us. Seeking the primitive raw energy in all things seems to be the intuitive desire of an artist. The energy of a seed bursts open, a flower strives to blossom, leaves twist their body towards the sunlight craving for the attention and touch of love. The raw desire of feeling alive. Wabi-sabi praises the nature of things, taking away any decorations, excessives, and expressing the pure, true personality of oneself. Ikebana (Japanese floral arrangement) celebrates the same philosophy of wabi-sabi. A chipped vase is completed with a single flower bud. A dead branch still exhibits its liveliness through visual movement. The balance is achieved through simplicity rather than abundance. The raw energy from the plants becomes one with the matching vessel. Japanese term Ichi-go Ichi-e (once in a lifetime encounter) describes every moment in life that is unrepeatable and is to be treasured. Due to the finitude of one’s existence, every life is treated with respect and care, no matter how big or small. In this regard, less is more, less is enough.
Ray Billington and Inc Ebrary, Understanding Eastern Philosophy. (London: Routledge, 2003). Bernard Leach, A Potter’s Book (London: Unicorn, An Imprint Of Unicorn Publishing Group, 2016). 11 Leonard Koren, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers: For Artists, Designers, Poets and Designers (Point Reyes: Imperfect Publishing, 2008), p. 7 (p. 7). 9
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Fig. 2 | Cherishing Something Old and Broken12
In Bergson’s words, wabi-sabi is a ‘form of aesthetic feeling’. ‘If musical sounds affect us more powerfully than the sounds of nature, the reason is that nature confines itself to expressing feelings, whereas music suggests them to us’, similarly the charm of poetry comes with images being developed through rhythmic words, that aesthetic emotions are elevated. It is the same spirit of ikebana. Learning ceramics taught me how to surrender. Surrender to the goal of seeking ultimate truth, to nature and the universe, and finally to ourselves. There is no absolute truth, nor absolute perfection. You will never be happier if you always want more. Wabi-sabi is about appreciating what something truly is and the beauty lies in itself, nothing more or less.
12
Cherishing Something Old and Broken <https://www.pinterest.cl/pin/530228556132539266/> [accessed 25 May 2020].
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Chapter Two - Memory
2/8/2017 ‘Tony’ I could write the whole script of the life of my dad, The instagramable dream life that he lives, Maybe just a little more extraordinary than an ordinary life. Time chew away the paint, And the wheels through motion and gravity. We fixed the sliding door of the kitchen together, Taking something apart and analyse its mechanism, Like how we built all the IKEA furniture 15 years ago. For the days I was home, He would go get the freshest produce every morning, Made three meals during the day, As he was making up all the time we lost. How many memoirs were documented by our taste buds?
5/8/2017 ‘Home - Shenzhen’ It has been four years since my last visit, Faces, streets, smell, The stickiness on every surface from the humidity, All become familiar as it was yesterday. Concrete raised between trees Unrested mind and fast-moving paces, Neon lights dancing between the skyline, Before the last beam of sunlight squeeze through, Forming the city with endless possibilities. Eleven summers in this home, Filled up a chapter of my life, All the notes that try to fit in the harmony, Will all become what I am longing for. Vibrant colours in those millions of dreams, May those fast-spinning minds and paces, Each finds its own space to shine, And to rest.
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6/8/2017 ‘Home - Nanjing’ If I have lived for eighty-eight years, Doubt my memoir can win the match against fate in time, Again and again questioning, “Are you painting the goose?” Again and again I answered, “They are Yuānyāng (mandarin ducks in a pair), grandma.” Just like the annoying 6 year old kid, Refusing to be ‘reasonable’. Through a whole life of glory, Through war and peace, The kid is always inside us, Afterall.
27/3/2020
‘A Loyal Enemy’ What is keeping us going, Is partially curiosity, partially fear. We met on the mountain tip, In the middle of the ocean, On the fast-speed train heading to another new place. Sometimes in the crowd, Mostly just you and I, In absolute silence. And here you are, Travelling the world from one end to another, Being the most loyal company. Through every excitement in the journey, Every new experiment, Every step forward.
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Hey, old friend, As long as I have been looking for the ‘answer’, And ways to run away from you, You are the true motivation keeping me searching, Going, pushing, stretching, In all directions as I was always ready. You scary piece of shit, Haunting me all the time, Now I am looking at you close-up, Taking you on straight up, You are just the enemy that has been training me through rivery. I have learnt to look inwards after looking outwards, And now I rely on you always being on this journey with me. Befriend your enemy, they said. This is what it is to be alive, And to feel alive.
10/5/2020 ‘Living and Experiencing’ When we observe how some people know how to manage their experiences their insignificant, everyday experiences - so that they become an arable soil that bears fruit three times a year, while others - and how many there are! are driven through surging waves of destiny, the most multifarious currents of the times and the nations, and yet always remain on top, bobbing like a cork, then we are in the end tempted to divide mankind into a minority (a minimality) of those who know how to make much of little, and a majority of those who know how to make little of much; indeed, one does encounter those inverted sorcerers who, instead of creating the world out of nothing, create nothingness out of the world.13
It takes crisis after crisis, to toughen the spirit of a person, a family, a nation, to create a world out of nothing. Turning a blind eye on the crisis, does not mean it does not exist. Survival instinct forces us to face death and live towards death. We can then rise above the mundane, strive and be closer to who we truly are.
13
Friedrich Nietzsche, R J Hollingdale, and Richard Schacht, Nietzsche: “Human, All Too Human” : “A Book for Free Spirits.” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 198 (p. 198).
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Chapter Three - Purpose
30/8/2018 Fortunately, we live Not just to get by, But truly live, With passion.
12/5/2020 The purpose of art Is to open your eyes And all senses, To open your mind To know more of yourself And the universe, To connect time, In our whole history as human beings Of longing for beauty and compassion for the other.14
13/12/2019
It is warmer than I thought today, The sun decided to come out for a moment And shine on the yellow-orange weathered bricks. It then comes through my body by the window That I can feel a part of me lighting up, Glowing, waving to the beam as I am solar powered. I noticed the momentary beauty of the day Is also treasured by the eyes of an artist, As I see my glow in her eyes.
14
Alain De Botton and John Armstrong, Art as Therapy (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2016).
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15/06/2018 A common crisis in all developed countries we face nowadays is the lacking purpose, higher purpose in life. Often judged by the conventional standard of success and competition have caused a rapid increase in depression and anxiety in modern society. We were rarely taught in the education system, how to seek for purpose and happiness in life. ‘IKI’ is to live, ‘GAI’ is the reason. IKIGAI is the reason we get out of bed every morning, and is finding the ‘why’s in our life. Luckily, we focus on our passion as artists and turn our capabilities into what we can offer to the world.15
23/5/2020 ‘Rebecca Morris’ Rebecca was my foundation drawing professor at Pasadena City College, where I took on the journey to study art professionally. I knew so little about art or drawing back then when I just came out of the corporate world. I seemed to shift from a complete parallelised world to another. I did not know the difference between different grades of pencil or how to use each, to draw. I remember clearly, she said to the whole class, “treasure the moments that you are struggling, because all the struggles and frustrations are raw energy from early days being an artist, all of that will appear in your work. One day you will be proficient and you know exactly what to do, then it’s hard to find that raw energy”. I was so frustrated everyday. I was struggling every moment in the first 3 years learning the foundation of art and I doubted my decision every other second for changing my career path. I gave up a comfortable life to count on every penny I could possibly earn. I am so far away from my family, friends and everything I know. I was so eager to learn everything in the shortest amount of time. I wanted to draw and paint like the masters. I wanted to find the secret channel to this new world called ART. I wanted to build Rome in one day. The secret was not hidden in the techniques, but the question from Rebecca: “Think about who you are and what you want to be, what you want to express with your art?” This wake-up call is worth every effort. The answer that I have been searching for a long long time.
15
Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles, Ikigai : The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. (Hutchinson, 2017).
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29/5/2020 ‘Marina Abramović’ “You are either an artist or not! There is no trying to be an artist”, says Marina. Do you have an urge to create every morning you wake up? Art is like oxygen, that you cannot live without. It’s the energy that comes with birth. Being a great artist may have one or two great ideas in your entire life, But be careful with them. Do not be afraid to fail, take risks, Enter the realms of the unknown, Like how Columbus discovered America. Choose the medium or material to best present your ideas. Good art should be luminous, empowering and spiritually lifting. Be present, starting from learning how to drink a glass of water. Looking at the big picture, be open to the unknown. You are free.16 30/3/2020
In this pandemic crisis, or in general, artists don’t live to survive but live genuinely. When we think of early Dutch New York we do not think of the hardships Endured Perhaps some but not all of them But if we did we could Survive 16
“Marina Abramović: Advice to the Young,” Www.Youtube.Com (Louisiana Channel, 2013) <https://youtu.be/8Ck2q3YgRlY> [accessed 7 July 2020].
16
Uncle Phillip wanted me to give up my crazy ideas and have a nice life He want ed me to Survive -
Richard Tuttle17
31/5/2020
Fig. 3 | AJ Hickling Streets to Steinway, 2018
The sublime beauty with which every keystroke speaks his wonder and pain exquisite joy and ephemeral insight
17
Richard Tuttle, “Essays — Artists Respond: Richard Tuttle, Mar 26, 2020,” Pace Gallery, 2020 <https://www.pacegallery.com/journal/essays/artists-respond-richard-tuttle/> [accessed 30 March 2020].
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We all have moments of clarity Raw weakness Strength and Unfathomable love And everything in between.. it is all here I close my eyes and become liquid So grateful for this talent. -
Emma Bennett18
30/5/2020
If we can see the extraordinary within the ordinary, We can have gratitude and appreciation for the small things in life – The taste of tea, The smell of rain in the desert, The in and out movement of the breath. By being at ease with the ordinary we release Or grip on having to become better, Or different, Or more special than what we already are.19
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AJ Hickling, Streets to Steinway, 2018 <https://evolvingrhythms.bandcamp.com/album/streets-to-steinway> [accessed 31 May 2020]. 19 Tias Little, Meditations on a Dew Drop: Poems and Teachings on the Flow of Presence (Prajna Yoga, 2010).
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Chapter Four - Being
28/3/2020
‘Being is time and time is finite’. 20 Thinking about impermanence /ɪmˈpəːmənəns/, time and existence, through living and making in this particular period of life. What do we do in this pandemic? Waking up only thinking about what to eat for each meal. Time was occupied by repetition: make, eat, wash, the basics of living plus the frequency of hand washing in each interval. Hands in flour dough feels familiar in some ways as working with clay. All those doughs through the making and my digestion system, turned into a protective layer around my waist, marking time and their existence. Since the lockdown, I have been spoiled by the California sunshine with the surreal green from my hometown. The glitters on the River Thames however, remind me it is the magic of London. The outer space from my flat is luxuriously spacious. From north to south, east to west, I see the 270 degree view of London, or maybe a bit more. Yet, I am trapped in this indoor space with no wheels, no kilns, no glaze rooms. Makers are gonna make. But how and what. What can I complain about? These problems only exist in the first world countries, when we always want more and more. More facilities, more space, more tools. Phoebe Cumming filed for bankruptcy a few months after graduation from the RCA and started her mobile studio practice with ‘clay, a bucket of water and a board’21. If I was forced to live with the bare minimum, what would that be? I have clay, access to water, and whether or not the finished objects need to be fired, I do not need to think about that, at least for now. Restrictions and limitations might open up new methods of making and more opportunities. Nature knows it better. I have half a bag of reclaimed clay and half a bag of the ultra expensive limoges. Simply because that’s the most valuable thing in the studio that I might make a good use of, but with cautious decisions. Hence, procrastination. What about the reclaimed clay? Even though there is not much. It does not require careful consideration. It can be turned into anything. Carving out from a block. Coiling into a vessel. At the same time, the negative from one object turns into the positive of another. 20
Martin Heidegger, Dennis J Schmidt, and Joan Stambaugh, Being and Time (Albany: State University Of New York Press, 2010). 21 Phoebe Cummings, “Peripatetic Making: A Borrowed Space, Time Continuum,” The Journal of Modern Craft, 8.3 (2015), 359–71 <https://doi.org/10.1080/17496772.2015.1099250>.
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And all the dust, then collected to be made into slip, to try out this new method of slip painting/making. Yin and Yang dance together. Life and death complete a full cycle. What a fabulous plan that is. 22/4/2020 Impermanence is a hidden quality of clay. It has many forms. Over time, it can travel with wind and water, turn into dust, or dissolve into the ground. However, people often associate clay with its permanence. After firing over a thousand celsius degrees, the ceramics we see in the museums, in kitchen cupboards, or on the shore of River Thames, lived hundreds of years and seemed forgotten by time. Like in Buddisim’s measurement, an hour is the time to burn one incense and a quarter of an hour is the time to finish a cup of tea. Ceramic artist Yue Sun often constructs installation art visualising the passage of time. The motion of wet clay falling off to reveal the ceramic structure in Fall, the fresh flowers dying away to reveal the white porcelain chrysanthemum in Passing Away, are paying tribute to the time lost.22
Fig. 4 | Sun Yue Fall, 2012
22
Yue Sun, Sun Yue: Time and Impermanence in Ceramics, Gallery Magazine, 2019 <https://www.sohu.com/a/286610796_307618> [accessed 12 February 2020].
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Fig. 5 | Sun Yue Passing Away, 2014
In BCB 2015, Sam Bakewell built an impermanent structure - ‘pseudo-shamanic hut’ using coconut oil and china clay to contain memories from different stages of his life as a ceramic artist in each window cell, which showcased the permanence in the state of impermanence.23
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“2015,” British Ceramics Biennial, 2015 <https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/what-we-do/past-festivals/2015-2/> [accessed 8 June 2020].
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Fig. 6 | Sam Bakewell Imagination Dead Imagine, 2015
Fig. 7 | Sam Bakewell Of Beauty Reminiscing, 2015
22
Phoebe Cumming addressed in her essay that ‘there is always a desire to possess and contain, whereas we are comfortable with performance being momentary’.24 As a ceramic artist, she turns the making process into a performance. Even without the maker, the finished works (with unfired clay) themselves have a finite life. She decided to let go of possession or make any permanent work after her bankruptcy. Every piece since is a momentary performance on their own.
Fig. 8 | Phoebe Cummings Triumph of the Immaterial, 2017
When I hit my ‘quarter life crisis’, I realised the ‘successes’ I have been chasing, being a constantly ‘motivated’ screw in corporatism, possessions, six digit income, a convertible car, a beach house, tropical holidays and a ‘happily ever after’ relationship was called the ‘mundane’. There is no permanence in any possessions. Our life is a momentary performance.
24
Cummings.
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30/3/2020 This is a halfway point. A time of being in between, An ending and a beginning. Each moment appears and disappears, Like a flake of falling snow, Like a flare of raising fireworks. So be with the moment, Be with every breath, Be with every drop of rain.
Fig. 9 | Monica Tong Sound of Porcelain, 2020 (detail)
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Fig. 10 | Monica Tong Breathe, 2020 (detail)
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Fig. 11 | Monica Tong Harmony, 2020 (detail)
28/3/2020 All know that the dewdrop merges with the ocean, But few know that the ocean merges into the dewdrop. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Hold for a few seconds. Exhale slowly. Repeat until you have slowed down, Decreased your thinking and deepened your awareness. Visualise a single drop of water. Watch the drop fall into the ocean. Feel the ocean merge into the drop. You are the drop. You are the ocean. Breathe and be at peace. - Kabir25 25
Kabir, Dichter Indien, Ajaib Singh, Sant, and Russell Perkins, The Ocean of Love : The Anurāg Sāgar of Kabir (Sanbornton, N.H: Sant Bani Ashram, 1984).
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4/3/2020 What is it like to experience the slowing down of time? As you were watching time flow on earth from outer space. Can you control the passing of time and the relationship of our place in this world? Or set your mind completely free, let it bounce freely in memory or imagination.
Teshima Art Museum in Japan united the creative visions of artist Rei Naito and architect Ryue Nishizawa. Standing on a hill on the island of Teshima overlooking the Seto Inland Sea, the museum resembles a water droplet at the moment of landing. Under its concrete shell, water continuously springs from the ground in a day-long motion. Two oval openings in the shell allow wind, sounds, and light of the world outside into this organic space where nature and architecture intimately interconnect. Here, nature, art and architecture come together with such limitless harmony, conjures an infinite array of impressions with the passage of seasons and the flow of time.26
Fig. 12 | Teshima Art Museum
26
“Teshima Art Museum,” Benesse Art Site Naoshima <http://benesse-artsite.jp/en/art/teshima-artmuseum.html> [accessed 2 March 2020].
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5/3/2020
Our senses make us human and give us perceptions of the world we live in. The tiniest, intricate, momentary things can tickle our senses and project the feeling of our mind and body into the extended space around us. The spatial and immersive installation art often provides us the inclusive experience of our whole body through our sensory perceptions.
Fig. 13 | James Turrell James Turrell, 2020
Fortunately, I had the chance to visit the Pace Gallery London to witness Turrell’s “physical manifestation of light”. He paints three-dimensionally in space using light. The entire gallery space was activated through his illusory manipulation. Viewers would gain a completely new experience from every perspective, whether you are sitting on the floor, on the bench or standing by the wall, close up to the light, or in the middle of the room. The illusion is ever-changing immersively, transcendental and temporal. ‘The loop of slowly changing light, takes the lead in our sensory experience in colour, space and time.’27
27
“James Turrell,” Pace Gallery, London, 2020 <https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/james-turrell-9/> [accessed 4 March 2020].
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Fig. 14 | JamesTurrell The Light Inside, 1999
First time experiencing Turrell’s installation for me goes back to 2016. I was just entering the third month in my life transition from Finance to Art. Like I was again at a crossroad, standing in this channel - The Light Inside by Turrell, somehow for the moment all doubts, struggles, anxiety and time were sucked away into the infinite end.
8/4/2020 ‘Present and Eternity’ Present is the smallest moment in the space of infinity. Infinity consists of unlimited moments like each quantum. Each extends in lines and planes, parallels and crosses each other in complex relations. “From the point of view of one who creates, everything is a gamble, a leap into the unknown”, says Yayoi Kusama.28
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Kusama: Infinity (Magnolia Pictures, 2018).
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Fig. 15 | Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013
29/3/2020
’Reflection on a moment‘ Here I am Residing in the body of a drop of water. Full of motion within Even when I am still. Sometimes I run Sometimes I flow Sometimes without a trace. I am part of a cloud I am part of a stream Feeling the wind brushes my skin I depart and rejoin I bath in the sunbeams at golden hour Reflecting streams of the light. Here I am, Shining like a diamond.
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1/4/2020 Take an emotional inventory, To see where you have come from, And how far you have travelled. 2/4/2020 Find openness, Leap into the unknown outside of our familiar, The self is always in flux, not solid, More so ever the body is uncertain, The system is uncertain, What if we were to stand in the place of wonder, Full of uncertainty, Full of mystery, We embrace of not knowing, We allow things to be outside of our control, Allow the world to unfold on itself, Spend time in a place of wonder, It brings us into the momentariness of each breath, Each passing memory, Seek insights into own personal history, value, the pursuit of most important to us, The first step is to loosen your fixed views And be open to possibilities, This uncertainty, this ambiguity, that we find ourselves in, Is a source of great potential, A kind of raw energy, A kind of potency, If we allow it to flow through us, Other things may be compossible, Take time in our own reflection, Take time, The quiet time allows us to open to the radical possibility of newness, Discovery, and openness, The radical state to trust, Take the leap of faith into the unknown, With resilience, Till the garden soil of our heart, New growth occurs in Spring, ‘In the dark time, the eyes begin to see’29.
29
Tias Little, “The Great Paradox: The Power in Not Knowing” (Prajna Yoga, 2020) <https://soundcloud.com/prajna-yoga/dharma-talk-with-tias-the-great-paradox-the-power-in-not-knowing/s-VHe k9AEy180> [accessed 2 April 2020].
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‘In a dark time, the eye begins to see.’ -
By Theodore Roethke
i In a dark time, the eye begins to see. I meet my shadow in the deepening shade; I hear my echo in the echoing wood— A lord of nature weeping to a tree. I live between the heron and the wren, Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den. ii What’s madness but nobility of soul At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire! I know the purity of pure despair, My shadow pinned against a sweating wall. That place among the rocks—is it a cave, Or winding path? The edge is what I have. iii A steady storm of correspondences! A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon, And in broad day the midnight come again! A man goes far to find out what he is—
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Death of the self in a long, tearless night, All natural shapes blazing unnatural light. iv Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire. My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly, Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I? A fallen man, I climb out of my fear. The mind enters itself, and God the mind, And one is One, free in the tearing wind.30
6/4/2020 When you don’t have the answer, look inward.
9/4/2020 At times I have been asking myself, what is really that you love? With full passion? That you cannot live without? I realised one day, money and social status cannot be the ultimate goal. This world may not need more bankers, but certainly will be seen more beautifully through the eyes of artists. With no certain directions, I packed my bag and went looking for the path. Following one’s passion takes courage, what takes more courage is searching for a passion and sticking with it. You have to be patient. You have to stay true to yourself at all times. The result may come later, but you have to walk down the peak of a mountain to be able to get to the other. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great has ever been achieved without enthusiasm.” It takes courage and strength to open your eyes every morning with passion and hope. What makes your heart sing everyday?
30
Theodore Roethke, “‘In a Dark Time,’” The New Yorker, 1960 <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1960/01/16/sequence-in-a-dark-time> [accessed 2 April 2020].
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23/4/2020 ‘Time/Place/Trace’ Dong Qichang was a Chinese painter and calligrapher from the Ming Dynasty. How well the livelihood and characteristics of the subjects are executed through each brush stroke ranks first out of the six rules for determination of outstanding Chinese paintings. Dong suggests that the Chi from a painter’s brush strokes cannot be learned. An artist should be born with it, as a talent. However, one can be enlightened through studying thousands of books and walking thousands of miles; brushing off the dust from the mundane, one would be able to build mountains and cities by heart. Effortlessly, every stroke then will sing the spirit of any landscape.31 In the extreme situation of pandemic, travelling is banned everywhere, from local to national to international. Travelling is important to me, seeing, smelling, touching are ways to feel the unknown parts of the world. Without travelling, I can only read as a substitute. However, as long as something is put down in words, we are seeing the world through someone else’s lens. The upside is, we can time travel through those words to go back to any particular point in time. I have been rethinking my past travels. What would it be like if it involved my art practice in clay? Would I visit local artist studios to try to make something unique from the site, or pack some composite from the volcanic mountains in Hawaii, maybe a handful of sand from the antelope canyon if allowed? How would they look after firing if I incorporate them into my work, as a trace of my travel? As Phoebe Cumming addressed in her essay, ‘Places inform and direct the work, and often provide vastly different environments to work in, but there is continuity in the approach to moving and thinking with the material. No one body of work is entirely separate from another, things dart back and forth between locations and times, in processes and thoughts.’ 32 Maybe I was an itinerant in my previous life.
18/04/2019 Water gives us calmness, it seems to have the same rhythm of our heartbeat. Japanese zen gardens are famous for its dry landscape or rock landscape, as they often use gravel or sand to represent the ripple and rhythm in water. It seems to have the same meditative effect as if you are sitting by a pond or stream. As you can observe your thoughts rippling outwards and disappearing with the flow. The present
31 32
Dong Qichang, 画旨 / Hua Zhi (Verlag: 西泠印社, Hangzhou: Xi Ling Yin She, 2008). Cummings.
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becomes history and the future becomes present. The rocks and gravel help me to be present and be grounded.
Fig. 16 | Zen Garden
24/4/2020 Tao (the watercourse way) has been described as ‘the art of being in the world’
，
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 8 The supreme good is like water, Which nourishes all things without trying to. It is content with the low places that people disdain. Thus it is like the Tao. In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present. When you are content to be simply yourself And don’t compare or compete, Everybody will respect you.33 33
Laozi and Stephen Mitchell, Tao Te Ching : A New English Version (New York: Harpercollins, 2006).
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Gentleness and humility are the characteristics of water, which describe the virtue of Taoism. The power of gentleness is in action of non-action, letting go of forces and controls, which gives nature the chance to unfold itself. The Tao goes beyond the skills. When we learned how to throw on a pottery wheel, it all started with trying to force the clay into the form we wanted. After a while, it turns into our hand guiding the clay and then the form being guided by the material and natural forces. It’s about finding the balance of action and non-action. Each vessel has its own spirit that moves and shapes itself into what it wants, at each stage of the making, firing and re-firing. Our perception and understanding of it comes to a stop at some point. As makers we need to find the stillness of mind to be able to produce art, in order to do so we need to live in harmony with the Tao, the way of nature, the working of the Universe. Taoism is about the philosophy of flow, just like the water. In Tao Te Ching, Chapter 78 Nothing in the world Is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, Nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; The gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, But few can put it into practice. Therefore the Master remains Serene in the midst of sorrow. Evil cannot enter his heart. Because he has given up helping, He is people’s greatest help. True words seem paradoxical.34
Finding the ‘state of flow’ is often referred to as ‘the zone’ by many artists, musicians, dancers, writers and athletes. When we create in ‘the zone’, it is seemingly an effortless action. We stop thinking about the result, but immerse ourselves in the present moment of making. The skills we acquired have become part of our body (or the muscle memory), what we need to do is to find balance between the action and non-action, just like ‘Tai-Chi’ ( ) - the way Yin and Yang work together. The yang represents action, masculine or forces, and the ying represents non-action, softness or passiveness. As duality exists in all aspects in the world, it is important to let the masculine and femine energy flow into each other and find the balance.
太极
34
Laozi and Mitchell.
36
⽆为
The value of non-action, is called ‘Wu-Wei’ ( ) in Taoism. Finding the state of flow and ‘Wu-Wei’ helps us to be in the present. This means letting go of the failure in the past which gives us depression, and letting go of the uncertainty in the future which gives us anxiety. As Nietzsche describes it:
‘My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it—all idealism is mendacity in the face of what is necessary—but love it.’35
‘Amor fati’ in Nietzsche’s is similar to ‘wu-wei’ in Tao Te Ching. It is about non-action, surrender and a way to find peace within ourselves. When we are humble enough to let go of control and trust nature will take its own course, we gain invisible power and the virtue of Tao. Having trust in nature and the Universe opens the feeling of oneness/wholeness/unity within ourselves and nature will respond in resonance with our senses and emotions. The frustration, conflicts, anxiety, and the void will then fade away.36
25/4/2020
空
Space ( /kōng/) is an interval of time, a capacity to hold substances, the in-between and the foundation of consciousness. Give it space, says the government and artists. Space is separation, silence, resonance, respect, imagination and the proximate relationship between things, people and time. Artists often play with the positive and negative space, in constant search of the in between. Grandma used to repeatedly teach me when I was 6, “A great man has a big heart”. She explained: “Your heart has to be spacious enough for all your emotions, especially the negative ones: jealousy, frustration, reluctancy, anxiety and greed. You observe them, like they are trapped in this glass container, from a distance.” In Buddhism, everything we see is impermanent, ever-changing, and immaterial. Transcendence goes beyond time and space, yet it includes time and space. 35
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche and Walter Kaufmann, Basic Writings of Nietzsche. Translated and Edited, With Commentaries, by Walter Kaufmann. (New York, Modern Library (C, 1967), p. 714 (p. 714). 36 Gregory.
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26/4/2020 ‘Measure of time by my body’ Seeds sprout, From sprout to leaves, From leaves to branches, A month has passed. Trees turned green, Patches to fields, Flowers blossom, From low to high, A season has passed. Snort starts running down my nostril, Onto the tip of my lip, That is when I know, I have been here, Long enough.
27/6/2020 Time is money, And money is finite.
RCA MA1
£
Tuition
28,400
Rent
13,200
Living
6,800
Material
2,800
Total
51,200
We are all trapped in capitalism. Only art is my redemption.
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