| Because of greed, human beings always want the best interest for themselves, and not for others. Unfortunately, this seems to be regarded as the drive for human progress. The world today cannot bear any more of humans’ greed. People are exhausted by their own never-ending desire and caught up in this vicious circle. If things come from void and eventually return to void, what is there to be gained in this material world, what can we actually change? When art comes to a point where only the concept lives, art reaches the point of abyss. But art would not really end. In a piece of work, what is left or what can really be presented? |  |
Yu Jian-Rong
Because of greed, human beings always want the best interest for themselves, and not for others. Unfortunately, this seems to be regarded as the drive for human progress. The world today cannot bear any more of humans’ greed. People are exhausted by their own never-ending desire and caught up in this vicious circle. If things come from void and eventually return to void, what is there to be gained in this material world, what can we actually change?
When art comes to a point where only the concept lives, art reaches the point of abyss. But art would not really end. In a piece of work, what is left or what can really be presented? I think what’s left would not be just a concept, or a show to satisfy senses, certainly not a display of pure skills. It would be a combination, an integration. So I see art as a dialogue, hoping to find a meeting point or a point of conflict, through my relationship with concepts, materials, forms, and techniques. To enlighten viewers, or to confuse them, or to appease them. With this dialogue, I want to deduct, but not to the point of complete nothingness. The rules are simple, like what Leonard Koren says in his book Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, “Pare down to the essence, but don’t remove the poetry. Keep things clean and unencumbered, but don’t sterilize.”
