China

Liang Shaoji's Solo Exhibition: Cloud above Cloud

Selections from the Reading Notes (1990-2016) of Liang Shaoji 

Warps and wefts indeed interweave into the basic frame of textile. But they are not the only frame of textile. Having climbed over the fence of decoration and resisted the temptation of wild choices for materials, I finally reach the cradle of fiber art and textile. What I’ve found is the critical point where things as follows begin to overlap: science and art, biology and sociobiology, textile and the art of sculpture, installation, performance and mixed media. So I got started to raise silkworms in 1989. Up till now, 26 years have passed and I’ve developed the ‘Nature Series’.  

Time flashes back to the rainy day in 1988. The rain had just stopped. From the tiny window of the hall, there was a beam of light cast onto the dried cocoon nailed on the piece of silk (which was manufactured). A misted image loomed immediately, the cocoon seemed came to live and the silk gleamed. It struck on me that why didn’t I create a work of art that full of life? That was the moment when my idea of building on the image of silkworms was inspired by the hazy and primitive impulse.

Space is full of vitality because of time. The trace of silk becomes the clues of existence and those who exist. Thus, everything in the world can be measured.    

All creatures on the earth are struggling for survival space from the absurd and continuous contradictions. Not only the Nature but the mankind are making it hard for life. While the natural silk that appears to be so delicate and broken easily is rarely broken off. It possesses tenacious vitality, strong faith in life and the flexibility to win over the force. The long and unbroken silk connects the eternal life.

Six Principles
1). Connected to the nature: through interacting with the nature to achieve the unity of human and the nature.
2). Connected to life: with the experience of life to meditate that

‘I am a silkworm’.
3). Connected to the Zen-like spirit: The sound of silkworms --- the sound of Zen
Silk threads --- traces of thoughts --- lyrics of poetry
4). Connected to rational thoughts: taking an artistic outlook on science, and a humanistic approach to art. Art and science can’t be isolated from each other neither can the rational ideas and whims.
5). Connected to the law of the nature: respecting the law of the nature and the nature will respect you in return.
6). Connected to the details: comprehending the global picture from details and the hard facts. 

‘Clouds above, images below’
The cloud is a floating mix of water drops, ice crystals and dust. It is one of the representatives of the massive and flowing hydrological cycle. The sublimation of vapors reflects the sunshine and the world, leaving misted and illusionary images. 

I began to study the delicate pulse of the Nature. It is the mysterious symbolic significance of clouds which has developed along with the history of human beings, religions, science, and arts. Looking into the vast sky, I can’t help asking, ‘what is the mystery behind the veils of clouds?’ Now, I attempt to measure the inexpressible doom of sky with the long, thin and warm silk. The cosmos is no more than a silk web. The threads of silk are the traces left by the light and mysterious particles that travel through the black hole. The cocoons are the celestial bodies dotted in the boundless sky. As Giordano Bruno put it, ‘a man who wants to perceive the immensity of the cosmos is the same with the man who tries to grasp the essence and core of things’. Infinity can’t be measured by senses, but senses may inspire rationality. With meditation, an artist is capable of figuring out the chaos and revealing the infinity. The clouds have sheltered the world that is beyond description, though they have depicted the world in the meantime.

Since nearly all the religions guide their disciples to eternity, the clouds have been symbolized as the pleasant ladder and tranquil home to the purification and sublimation of souls. Clouds could be found almost everywhere in the sky of a Western painting during the Medieval period to the end of 19th century. They constituted part of the image picturing the Ascension or mysticism illusions. Later, with the birth of ‘Perspective’ during Renaissance, clouds became a balancing power among the science, ideology and the painting mechanism.

Not only the scientists are studying the formation of cumulus clouds, but the religions are exploring the cosmos. I found this in 2016 during my visit at the Islamic Culture Center in Doha. In the Koran 24:43, it read ‘don’t you know that it is Allah who makes the clouds move, clustered and accumulated? Then you see the rain falling down from the layers of clouds…’

Compared to that of Buddhism, the philosophical thinking of ‘cloud’ in Taoism is quite different and much broader. Based on the ideas of Taoism, those who can appreciate the unique beauty of lotus must have a mind as tranquil and elegant as the clouds and water. The metaphor for a monk’s travel is the wandering clouds and water. Also, music boasts a poetic definition -- ‘the free and quiet mind of Zen in cloud and water’. In Taoism, clouds represent the constantly changing world. Nothing remains unchanged. There is no such a thing like ‘I’ in all laws of the nature. That’s how everything can be accomplished. The trend of clouds and water are hard to predict, such as the dew and the lightening. More examples of clouds and water can be found in ancient Chinese poems. The poet Hanshan from Tang Dynasty once lived in seclusion in Tiantai Mountain, Zhejiang Province, for 70 years. He wrote, ‘the green and beautiful stones were shrouded in the clouds’. Another famous poet Wang Wei from Tang Dynasty wrote, ‘if you walk to the end of the trickle, you may see the source of water. Then if you sit down quietly and look up into the sky, you may notice the changes of the clouds.’

In the ancient Chinese art, the meaning of ‘cloud’ derived from substantial existence to the spirituality and flexibility. ‘Cloud’ became the code of cultural redemption because it witnessed the intersection of the void and reality. The ancient Chinese decorated the colored potteries and painted house wares with varied patterns of clouds. The renowned ancient Chinese calligrapher and painter Mi Fu was famous for his unique way of depicting clouds with intensive dots. All of these above were imbued with poetic rhythm and the wise comprehension of life and the cosmos. They are the interpretation of artists’ broadened and ambitious minds.

The traditional Chinese painting theory has described those objects with high density as ‘the root of clouds’ such as stones and trees. Correspondently, it has described the objects with low density as ‘the light clouds’. The Chinese character for ‘cloud’ is ‘云’. In the ancient Chinese, what’s interesting was that the verb for all the speeches or linguistic communication was ‘云’. It seems that everything back then were under the ‘clout’ of ‘clouds’.

I host the solo exhibition ‘the Clouds above Clouds’ in the museum of the China Academy of Art in 2016. The theme already showed that it apparently proposed further questions upon the ‘clouds’. It’s said that to pursue a thorough understanding is the devotion to thinking. With more extensive and in-depth comprehension, one would embrace the self-transcendence. In the expression ‘the Clouds above Clouds’ the latter ‘clouds’ referred to the radiance from the spiritualized ‘concepts’ of materials and speeches. 

The Russian painter Kasimier Severinovich Malevich was the pioneer of the Suprematism. In his famous work White on White, Kasimier Severinovich Malevich used the definitely abstract squares to show the ‘pure impartiality’, the ‘pure affection’ and the ‘sense of perishing’. But his creation was based on logics. In my point of view, the easterners have their own interpretation and experience of the cosmos, the nature and art. So ‘the Clouds above Clouds’ was originated from the nature, making it closer to the beginning of the heaven and earth. It had less things to do with physical science. Instead, it involved life, time and space and paved the avenue to the essence of the oriental aesthetics--the most magnificent square is often shapeless.

While for fiber art alone, the spinning of silkworms resembles traces of clouds. Clouds represent the breath of the nature and the vaporized textiles of life. 

A handful of codes of semiotics and science of materials have been compiled into the layout of the exhibition: eternity and instant (the triangle cones and stones from Wenchuan), heaven and hell (‘the Sound of Silkworms’ and ‘Destiny’), the meditation over life in the corridor (‘Lonely Cloud’, ‘Cloud Mirror’ and ‘How I Wish I Could Touch the Blue Sky’), and the ‘Plane Tunnel’ wrapped up everything in the cycle of time.