Ting Ju SHAO
邵婷如
「未顯化的生命」邵婷如 2016
"Life Unmanifested" by Ting Ju Shao
2016
(See English version following the Chinese version)
《邵婷如：捻花不語》Ting-Ju Shao: Silently Holding the Flowers
Linda Sikora/琳達。希寇拉
《捻花不語：日本京都惠風藝廊邵婷如個展 2019》是探討邵婷如研究材質與內容之最新成果的展覽。邵婷如今年春天在荷蘭歐洲陶藝中心（European Ceramic Work Centre, EKWC）的駐地發展一系列模製與人像的骨瓷作品。從她最後的成品，可以看出她在三個月內密集完成系列作品所投入的心力（註1）。由於採用了要求極高的材質，其經典角色的基本小型人像系列，顯得尤其精緻而令人不安。陶藝創作過程始終是邵婷如回應世界、回應大地、回應陶土、回應自己的基本方式。在這些作品中，這種材質讓人像超越塵世，同時打破了肉身與瞬息的關係。
骨瓷人像以「站姿」呈現是重要的；超越風格化的做法，讓人感到不尋常的體型，加上白色半透明的陶體密度，既吸引人同時也有些怪異——似乎加強了人像最終的存在感，使人像變得遠比其實際尺寸更有氣勢。〈那天我遇見自己〉中單一、成對，或做為裝飾的人像，〈靜靜地就像這樣吧！〉中成雙成對的男女像、〈我和我的心在這裡、在那裡、在哪裡？〉中如縮時影框或手翻書動畫的群像，都如幽魂一般。質地和光澤形同玻璃的骨瓷，讓我們只能慢慢靠近，也質疑著我們對它的假設。它是有權威的。 置高、框構並孤立在特定場地中的群像，已經不再如邵婷如過往的一些置身在塵世中的作品般，就算是，他們也置身於不可見之處。早先上色的陶作，比較執意賦予人像身分與現在式的時態。不論每個人像的姿態如何，他們都緊閉雙眼︰全心注視與一般的觀看不可混為一談。這些人像的一致不是為了匿名，而是為了建立在陽剛身分與陰柔身分、和平狀態與擾動狀態之間變動的原型。雖然身體尺寸類似孩童，但人像卻顯現出成人的解剖類型。邵婷如是技巧熟練的形式主義者，她的雕塑策略是敏銳的。
再現人性是一種行為。邵婷如深具風格的再現策略，橫跨東西方，並揉合了不同時代歷史的過往與當代儀式或文獻的表達方式。她創造脈絡，作品運用的情緒既不會損害人像的裝飾姿態，也不會減少其隨葬品般的儀式肅穆性，邵婷如為這些情緒「重訂用途」。這些人像向動畫致意，也有幾分電影場景的意味，從傳記和哲學的角度來看，他們是必要而豐富的，具有龐大的潛在影響力。邵婷如於2018年臺灣國際陶藝雙年展擔任策展人所寫的論述中指出，最古老的陶器遺跡下維斯特尼采（Dolní Věstonice）的維納斯像（公元前29000至25000 年）代表著我們再現自身的動力與行為，而這是人類韌性的基本要件。她透過「土」這種耐久媒材來探索當代內容與具象再現能否做為貼切的表達方式，這是一種人文主義，對觸動當代人的想像力是必要的。今日人類的韌性已受到質疑，讚揚與哀悼那高聳脆弱的白色花朵，感受到我們可能失去很多的後果。如果人心對有限生命的抗拒，阻撓了我們關心自然界的能力（即使我們明知自己必須關心），這有可能侵蝕我們的同理心，也許只有美的複雜性與醒目的影響力，才能引起我們關注（見伊蓮．史卡里〔Elaine Scarry〕的著作《論美》〔On Beauty〕）。邵婷如在其近作中就提出了這點。
邵婷如領悟陶土的潛力，也很快就將陶土與她對書寫及記錄的需要結合。她目前的個人創作書寫半是傳記、半是幻想。文字與陶土這兩種媒介，引導著她的創作方向。她在私人工作空間磨練創作，沒有參與學院的藝術課程，她也透過禪與佛教的當代相關文本賦予作品概念。她追隨古人的智慧，莊子也是她深入探索的對象之一。骨瓷的媒材也許多少為她開啟了概念上的契機，讓她可以協調作品內容與精神思想。
邵婷如對事件相關性的雕塑刻劃，瀰漫著從神秘到詩意的氣氛——但它們不是虛構，也不寓居於歷史。她的作品比較接近當代神話，蘊含著歷久彌新的智慧。正如R．D．錐普斯（R. D. Dripps）在其著作《第一間房屋》（The First House）的尾註中指出的：
不將神話理解為寓言、虛構或錯覺，而是從原意將神話理解為最真實的事物，這麼做是必要的。在這個意義上，神話不像歷史必須與當前事務保持必要的知識距離，而是一種活生生的存在，為人類行為提供典範，也正因為這點，神話為人生帶來意義與價值。
邵婷如活在當下瞬間的人像，或許帶有歷久不衰的教誨，但也持續保有肉身的姿勢、衣著、行走坐臥等種種動作的身體負荷。線條的元素產生了更獨樹一格的脈絡，同時是暫時性的物質標記。我們必須透過個人的心智與人格來超越人類自我；塵世是一種過程的儀式，我們透過這段儀式發現塵世的深刻；美的體驗（敬畏）是一種到達——只能透過意識來到達這種境界。
超越是一種意向，塵世是一種過程的儀式，美的體驗（敬畏）是一種到達。
這正是遺忘和回憶的作用。
Linda Sikora/琳達。希寇拉 美國阿爾菲德大學紐約州立陶藝學院藝術與設計學院(Alfred University ,New York State College of Ceramics)教授暨陶藝系主任
（註1）日本京都惠風藝廊展覽日期自2019年11月26日至12月8日，現場裝置作品尺寸為170*90*90hcm與 170*20*28hcm。
新北市鶯歌陶瓷搏物館展覽自2020年4月3日至-9月20日舉辦"亞熱帶花園"展覽，現場裝置作品尺寸為200*100*70cm
與200*20*10cm
Ting Ju Shao: Silently Holding the Flower by Linda Sikora
Silently Holding the Flower -Ting Ju Shao’s solo exhibition at Gallery Kei-Fu, Kyoto, Japan - is a first look at her most recent research into new materials and content. A residency at the European Ceramic Work Centre (EKWC) in The Netherlands the spring of 2019 became the forum to develop a series of modeled and figurative work in bone china. The expanded series, produced in a succinct period of time, necessitated an intensity of focus evident in the final output. Elemental, the small-scale figures that have become signature characters in Ting Ju Shao’s exhibitions, are especially exquisite and unsettling in this extreme material.(1) The ceramic process has always been essential in Shao’s response to the world, to the earth, to clay, to self. In this body of work, the material renders the figures transcendent while simultaneously collapsing the space between the corporal and ephemeral.
The bone china figures are rendered to a ‘standing height’ of consequence; larger than the stylization of the figure might lead one to expect, this uncanny physicality together with the density and translucent whiteness of the clay body is alternately alluring and eerie – making the ultimate presence of the pieces seem much greater, much more overbearing, than their actual size. Single, in pairs, in vignettes, the figures are doppelgangers as in The Moment I Meet Myself; gendered pairs as in Stay Quiet Like This; or multiples in larger groups that read like time-lapse film frames or a flipbook as in I And My Mind Are Here, There, Where？ The vitreous, bone china’s density and glow, slows our approach and interrogates our assumptions. It has authority. Raised, framed and isolated on small sites, the figurative groups are no longer in our world, as some of Shao’s earlier work has been – or, if they are, they dwell in the unseen. Previous work, of darker iron bearing clay or painted bodies, brought the figures, more insistently into identity and the present-tense. Regardless of each figure’s stance, eyes are closed; looking is not to be confused with seeing. The uniformity of the figures does not assert anonymity, rather an architype that shifts between identities of masculine and feminine and, states of peace and disturbance. Childlike in body proportions, the anatomical types are that of adulthood. A skilled formalist, Shao’s sculptural strategies are acute.
To represent humanity is behavioral. Shao’s stratagem of stylistic representation hybridizes historic and contemporary figuration from across hemispheres and histories that ritualize or document. Shao invents context, employing an emotional range that discounts neither the decorative stance of the figurine nor, the ceremonial gravity of burial objects. Shao ‘repurposes’ this emotional range .The figures nod to anime and seem cinematographic in their staging. Biographical and philosophical, they are consequential and generous. The impact has monumental potential. In a recent statement that Shao wrote to frame the concept of the 2018 Taiwan Ceramic Biennale - she points to the oldest ceramic relic, Venus of Dolni Vestonice (29,000-25,000 BCE), the impetus and agency to represent ourselves, and how this is essential to human persistence. Shao’s case for the endurance of ‘earthen’ material as a medium for exploring contemporary content and figurative representation as urgent expression, is a humanistic one and necessary to move the contemporary imagination. Human persistence is in question these days and, the consequence of how much could be lost is felt in the fragility of towering white flowers that celebrate and mourn. If the human imagination’s resistance to our mortality interrupts our ability to care for the natural world (even when we know we must) it also risks eroding empathy. Perhaps it is only the complexity and arresting impact of beauty that will snap us to attention (see On Beauty by Elaine Scarry). Shao posits as much in this recent work.
Ting Ju Shao learned of clay’s potential in grade school and soon paired it with her need to write and record. Shao’s personal writing at this time was part biography, part fantasy. Both materials - words and clay - guide her creative output. She advanced her practice in the private studio space instead of an academic art program and fed the work conceptually through contemporary texts about Zen and Buddhism. She has followed the teachings of ancient Chinese wisdom and names Zhuang Zhou as one among others she has explored deeply. Unequivocally, the material of bone china has opened a conceptual opportunity for Shao to mediate the content of her pieces and her spiritual thinking.
Shao’s sculpted account of connected occurrences range from cryptic to poetic – yet they are not fictive nor, do they rest in the historic. The delivery is more akin to a contemporary mythology that holds wisdom through time. As R. D. Dripps endnotes in his book, The First House :
It is necessary to understand myth not as fable, fiction , or illusion but rather in its original sense as that which is the most real. In this sense myth, unlike history with its necessary intellectual detachment from matters in the present, is a living presence supplying models for human behavior and, by that very fact, giving meaning and value to life.
Ting Ju Shao’s present-tense ephemeral figures may carry timeless teachings, but they are also insistently corporeal in their posture, clothing, physical burden of standing, sitting or otherwise negotiating the stages they are set upon. The added elements of color and thread generate more idiosyncratic context and are material markers of the temporal. Transcendence is a disposition; the mundane a rite of passage and, the experience of beauty (awe) an arrival.
This is the work of forgetting and remembering.
Linda Sikora
Professor, Division Head ,Division of Ceramic Art ,Robert C. Turner Professorship
School of Art and Design ,Alfred University ,New York State College of Ceramics
捻花不語自述
2019年於荷蘭歐洲陶藝中心駐地三個月，以骨瓷的純淨透光來傳達身軀容器蘊涵人類清澈內在的本體。肉體身處繁華的物質世界，日日在無意識的虛幻之境移動著，然而意識卻隨同宇宙穿流不息的分子變動遇合與分解，當我們在某個吉光片羽與宇宙之光遇合，正如換化純淨靈透的骨瓷之軀。
釋迦佛捻花，迦葉微笑，人類經由意識進化過程體驗喜悅和愛，肉體身軀與內在意識與來自遠古的花石同場共置，相互凝望。在繁忙的世間我們都曾在某ㄧ個當下被身邊的ㄧ朵花吸引而專注凝望，或是抬頭望見天上雲朵的千變萬化感動那幻妙的平靜，一沙一世界，一花一天堂，腦袋的喧擾暫時停格，瞬間湧上的平安，體驗天地的共生。白晰的石頭禪園與纖而薄兮瓷花滿佈的庭園，是過境人間清澈寧靜的心靈花園。
Silently Holding a Lotus
In 2019, I spent three months at the European Ceramic Work Center (EKWC) as an artist-in-residence and worked on the transparent white bona china to exemplify the way the human body serves as a vessel for the pure human essence. Our bodies in the bustling physical world move unconsciously every day, while our consciousness joins and disjoins the particles flowing ceaselessly in the cosmic. Every fleeting encounter with the cosmic light is incarnated in the pure and clean body of the bone china.
Gautama Buddha held a flower, and Maha Kassapa smiled. Humans experience joy and love in the evolution of consciousness. Bodies and inner consciousness gaze at each other in a room with ancient flowers and stones. We had been attracted by a flower we passed by in the busy world and gazed at it attentively for a moment, or had raised our heads to see the shifts of clouds and felt touched by their ethereal tranquility. A grain of sand contains a world; a flower contains a heaven. When the noises in our minds halted, we perceive our symbiosis with the world in the serenity of the instant. The Zen garden with white stones and thin porcelain flowers is the garden for the clean and peaceful mind that had experienced the human world.
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
創作自述「未顯化的生命」
對我來說,藝術不是關於高度金錢交換價值的物品,而是重申我們在當代的第一手經驗。—安東尼.葛姆雷(Antony Gormley)
根據科學家的研究，五萬年的人類已具備有心智能力，他們透過藝術創作，如洞穴的壁畫，思考人類存在的意義，或捏製陶土人偶，作為與未知宇宙的連結。過去30年的創作，以陶瓷這個古老傳統媒材製作人塑，意謂著人類與土地自古的固有連結，也彰顯人類本質堅定與脆弱的ㄧ體兩面，同時在人類意識變動的年代，再三回歸精神性進化過程的探索與提醒。
「有關小我-心之戰役」2014年的閉眼冥想的男孩，是個體追求自我內在平安的記錄。2016的作品，則是人類集體生命進化，與固有限制經驗的思考。
人類世世代代乘載的集體經驗，絕大多數的我們都受到心智的強烈制約。當希特勒成為獨裁者之前，可能他就像你我ㄧ樣的ㄧ般人。當身為人類的我們任由「小我」無意識的擴張時，欲求不滿的「小我」成為 『本我』的駕馭者，時時催促我們去滿足夠無止盡的欲望深淵，小者如個人無法滿足欲望所帶來的不安、不滿，大者如殘伐自己與他人。
「有關小我-心之戰役」穿著制服的男孩，頭戴皇冠，站立在紅色的台座上，以Ｖ形呈列，暗喻欲望權力，心之戰役的紅海。象徵受到小我制約的集體焦慮世代，思想任由川流不息的雜訊掌控，聽從“小我”不曾停止的欲望指令，焦盲追逐永無止盡的欲望，跟隨社會集體價值的主流，不曾停下腳步，安安靜靜面對內在本心的清明寂靜。
「未顯化的生命- I am Here. Here I am」，各自微微轉動頭部的閉眼冥想男孩站在圓形的白色台座，象徵零與無限的永恆，每ㄧ位頭部緩緩移動的瞬間，身心ㄧㄧ安在於每個當下，透過當下的默觀寂照，與原存在內在的本體再度相遇，重連世世代代已失聯的平安。透過這兩個相對面，作為對我們的良知的提醒與反思。
使用瓷土細膩質地表徵人類的原始初心，原同於孩童般的潔淨無暇；以石膏翻模灌漿，強調人類原存如光的本質，與小我困境限制的集體共通性。
「我們並非朝著某種目標邁進，而是與目標同在，它和我們ㄧ起改變。如果藝術有目的，那麼就是讓我們睜開眼睛看見這個事實」-約翰．凱吉
ARTIST STATEMENT "Life Unmanifested"
For me, art is not about objects of high monetary exchange, its about reasserting our firsthand experience in present time”-Antony Gormley
As indicated by scientific research, humans had developed mental capacity as early as fifty thousand years. They created artworks, such as cave paintings, contemplated the meaning of existence, or made ceramic figures to relate themselves to the unknown cosmos. For the last thirty years, I have been making figures with the ancient, traditional medium of ceramic clay to denote the age-old, inherent connection between humans and the earth, the strong and fragile sides of humanity, and to explore and remind one to continually resume the process of spiritual evolution.
“About the Egos of – The Battle of Mind”: While the 2014 series Children Meditating with Closed Eyes is a record of an individual seeking internal peace, the 2016 works are an inquiry into the collective evolution of human life and the limitation of established experiences.
Our minds have been relentlessly conditioned by the human experiences accumulated over generations. Before Hitler became a dictator, he might have been an ordinary person like you and me. When our id is allowed to expand immeasurably to devour our ego, and incessantly prompt us to fulfill its insatiable desires, it may result in individual unease and discontent, and even sufferings of us and others.
In “About the Egos of – The Battle of Mind,” crowned boys in uniform stood in V formation on the red pedestals, as an implication of the desire for power, the blood-red battle of the mind. They, who follow the endless command by their ego longing, chase blindly and anxiously for insatiable desires with stream flow confusion.
In “Life Unmanifested – I am Here. Here I am,” the boys meditating with closed eyes on white pedestals symbolize the eternity of zero and infinity. Each of them is at peace with themselves in the moments they slowly tilt their heads. Their introspection and meditation reunite them with their inner self, and reestablish their ties with human peace that have been lost for generations.
Through constant reflection and awareness, “About the Egos of – The Battle of Mind,” together with "I am Here. Here I am," act as a double reminder to our conscience by revealing the collective anxiety of this generation with constrained egos, and contemplating the stillness in every present moment.
As a symbol of the innocent origin of humanity, the fine texture of clay is as immaculate as children. Plaster molds and casts signify the bright side of humanity, and the conditions circumscribing all egos.
「We are not moving toward some kind of goal, we are at the goal, and it is changing with us. If art has any purpose, it is to open our eyes to the fact.」-John Cage.
創作自述
1989-2012
Artist Statement
TING JU SHAO
生為宇宙自然的一員，自年少起我便不停的思考：「我為什而生？」、「我於此人間的意義？」
由於自己對人類的有種強烈原發的興趣與關切，所以在二十幾年的陶藝生涯中，直接藉由人的形體訴諸表達意念。由最初單一形體的記錄，不斷探索人類身心囚居的受苦、不自由或是有關心靈清明的渴望與尋求。而後又經由群體泥人之組合，呈現人之立於社會、團體彼此互動時的緊張對立或扶持依賴；又涉指人類與自然之間的合諧或破壞、與空間的疏離或互敬。
這十幾年來世界各地天災連續不斷，人類貪婪取用地球的資源，對生態的任意破壞，大地之母反撲，對人類發出警告。故此於2002年在日本京都發表的空間裝置個展，呈述人類與自然的進一步關係。以鳥作為大自然的替代符號，對比一隻放大為近一百公分的大鳥與被縮小為十公分的小人塑，提醒過客人間的我們，自然與人類之間在地的主客關係。
或以77隻表情溫柔安詳的鳥群以圓型環繞的姿態層層包圍中間的ㄧ位小人塑，此一作品的題目為「七十七次溫柔的警告」，七十七的數字乃是取自聖經中耶穌對門徒彼得的開示「要原諒七十個七次」，也就是無止盡的寬容，這件作品記錄著自古以來，宇宙蘊育人類世代的承傳，對人類無數次的原諒與包容，77隻鳥包圍著宇宙過客的渺小人類，乃大地之母對人類「溫柔的警告」的提醒。
在「遇見宇宙美麗的綠光」一作，一件高為68公分的人塑，專注凝望手掌中的白色小天使，彼此心靈交會。當人類能夠觸探內在最深處的靈光，也就是透過神的國度、或人心的凈化所得到的生命救贖，也唯有這霎間吉光片羽的悟得，人類才會懂得如何謙卑的與宇宙自然共生。
2004年於新台北市鶯歌陶瓷博物館的展覽，以「出自同一模具的翻模人塑」代表當今世界資本主義的龐大主流勢力，心盲、奔逐物慾權勢的社會型態，如同一具具由模具翻製的假人，與宇宙自然全然失聯，喪失心靈自覺能力。
「What’s wrong?」 一作中10 具翻模的白色人塑群體，「檢視」隊伍中最後ㄧ位自由在仰望天際「與眾不同」的紅色人塑。「翻模的白色人塑」象徵當今世界強權的龐大勢力，不斷壓擠少數族群與所有獨立自主的生命體系，企圖以政治、經濟與流行文化強勢引導或「同化」所有的「異種」．當今世界強勢的價值，卻是向宇宙自然的掠奪，與心靈世界的失聯，對生之價值的失覺。十具翻模的白色人塑與唯一的紅色人塑，這中間多數與少數的量比中，暗喻哪邊才是被「集體模化」的「物體」，哪邊才是擁有心靈自由的人類。
「人類陛下，你要往那裡去？」圓型鐵架上排滿著低著頭，同一表情，同一動作，一個接一個不斷往前走的「翻自同一個模子」的白色人塑。當人類與宇宙自然失聯，棄離對心靈世界的「對內」探索，匆匆忙忙追逐「對外」「物質權勢」的主流價值，這群「集體模化」的白人塑， 失去心靈自覺的能力，在這個圓圈內不斷的重覆全然不知的集體制約，如同永無止盡的輪迴。
1996年發表「關於人類共築的夢、在墜落前，合力挽起，共舞在下一個世紀」以12位站在梯子上的人塑，全力網住網中的陶心。過去八年來天災人禍加劇，深感這個浩大的未知宇宙，人類是何其渺小，「在時間河域的寬容與承受，誰在臨界點？」一作以「關於人類共築的夢……..」相同手法，卻以12隻白鳥合力銜在網內墜落的人類，人類在物質世界的掠取奢侈濫用下，心靈卻越趨荒蕪虛空，如同面臨著生之臨界點。
2006年於日本發表的「21世紀所有的頭銜都可炒作販售，唯有自由的心靈無價」，以石膏模具翻製ㄧ群白色陶偶，這些白色陶偶頭戴金色皇冠，胸口正前方標示著商業銷售條碼，頭朝前方集體舉步往前邁步，白色人偶的最前方，站立著ㄧ位仰望天空的手捏暗紅色人偶，此人偶的肩上停留著ㄧ隻小鳥。以模具量化的概念， 象徵工廠生產線上製造的規格化與統一性， 代表著失去獨特特性與思考性的族群。
資本主義炒作的全球泛現象似已成主流 。當商業利益為“大眾價值“的社會核心標竿時，如何能保有初衷之心，具備獨特的思考選擇自身的價值，成為少數族群V.S大眾強勢勢力的對比，手捏塑出的赭色人偶象徵其獨特性與珍貴性，同時與大自然連結。
二十幾年來陶塑的泥人幾乎都是小小的頭，胖胖的身體，光著腳趾頭，乃是思考現代人在功利物質社會型態的污染誘惑下，失去最原本的赤子清純，其聰明才智誤用在投機取巧、心機處處。故此特意將泥人的頭部縮小，返歸一個「心寬體胖」的身軀，而且露出腳趾，意喻返樸歸真，無所掩飾的真我重現。
其間作品中也不斷的出現“平衡”的處理，如何在人類與自然、心靈世界與物化主流、小眾的堅持與多眾的強勢等議題，呈現作品在墜落損毀與平衡瞬間緊張關係的處理，正如我們所身處的世代現況。
而作品的詩意題目是另一個不可割捨的元素，那正如同是一首首的敘事詩，透露著作品的內在意涵。
ARTIST STATEMENT -TING JU SHAO
Being a participant in this universe, I have been asking the following questions ever since my younger days: "Why was I born?" and "Why am I here?" For the very reason that I am so strongly interested in our species, my work in ceramics has always used the sculpting of human figures to reflect the artist's concepts.
I recorded a single shape to explore the suffering and imprisonment of souls and bodies, as well as the desire to free the minds. Using different combinations of clay figures, I demonstrate the tension, hostility and dependence of people with their society, as with the harmonious or destructive relationship between man and nature.
In recent years, people have abused the resources in this world. A lot of damages have been done to nature, and that resulted in a lot of disasters of magnitude. This is a warning signaled by Mother Nature to us. For this very reason, the exhibition in Kyoto, Japan, 2002, was meant to be a reflection of the respective relationship between nature and us, with birds representing Mother Nature. For a bird that is manifested to 100 centimeters, and a human figure shrink to 10 centimeters, their relative ratio is a reminder for us who are the guests passing this world. The work was titled “The Seventy-Seven Gentle Warnings”, and its theme was represented by seventy-seven birds positioned in a circle around the small human figure in the middle. The number seventy-seven is taken from the bible, in which Jesus once told Peter “to forgive seventy-seven” times. Effectively, it is telling us to be generous in our forgiveness, which is what Mother Nature has been to us as well.
“Meeting the beautiful green light of the universe” is another work, represented by a human figure of 68 centimeters. He was looking at the small Angel positioned in the middle of his palm with a mutual understanding. Only when people can understand this intricacy of wonders created by God, and through his own humbling, then we can achieve a balance in the geo-cycle with Mother Cycle.
For the past 22 years, the clay figures always took on a small head with a fat body. The toes protruding from underneath. This is a reflection of the greed in this polluted world, people have lost their innocence, and all the efforts were used to think of obtaining small advantages. The size of the head became relatively small in this disproportion of energy. Yet, the toes are a remainder of the true nature of ourselves, one that cannot be hidden and should be drawn back into focus.
The use of multimedia is also a reflection of the contrast between material substance and the concept of time, just as the physical existence and the time of existence of all life on earth. The final disappearance of the physical body mirrors the fact that one day, the ceramic bird or figure can also be broken. The use of iron and wooden frame denotes the eternity of time. The use of feathers, which could represent the feather on the back of the angels, or the little wings on the angles; in turn draws on the symbolic representation of our faith in trust, hope and aspiration. While there are something in this universe which does not take on a physical form, our faith will remain the striving force that seek to maintain a balance with the universe.
The title of the work also constitutes an important poetic element; it is in itself like a narrative poem, revealing the in-depth meaning of the ceramic art.