My solo debut 𝑱𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 with
@spurs_gallery Beijing is now on view through 12/29/2024
The theme “Journey Into Love” stems from a concept that Cheng has deeply contemplated in both his creative practice and his life: “It is love that gives rise to all beings in this world; it is the mind that stimulates all phenomena in the universe.” The artist describes, “Once life develops a heart capable of love, it enters the infinite possibilities of love, shapeshifted to become a sentient being in the sentient world, hence to be amongst blessing, dedication, selflessness, mercy, serenity, peace, happiness, beauty, mutual support, and illumination. Yet it is also confronted by selfishness, greed, ignorance, hatred, agony, discord, impurity, conflict and suffering.
Love can be a euphoric, romantic comedy or an absurd, grotesque tragedy. Love is the root of all beings to be constrained; and love is also the termination for all to be liberated from the duality of beginnings and ends, birth and death, being and void, grasping and dispersing. Love may evoke hatred, and hatred can arouse love, weaving an endless loop of cyclical interplay between joyfulness and sufferings all in the name of love.”
In this new body of works, the artist portrays scenes of sentient beings, capturing the complex phenomena that derive from the notion of love—a man leaping off a cliff only to sacrifice himself to the starving tigress and her cubs; a woman bowing down to feed small animals; a man meditating on the transient nature of life under a tree; a man walking amidst the forest on the quest for knowledge; musicians playing and harmonizing their new encounters; lovers waltzing to embrace each other in a dream; a bird startled at night by the moonrise over the mountains; and a girl experiencing adolescence curious about the taste of love. These evocative yet ambiguous compositions blend together humans and nature, depicting interdependence and the ceaseless flux of existence, resembling the fluid, flaming, lush, and blooming, highlighting the interconnectedness and impermanence of the phenomenal world.
Image Courtesy of Spurs Gallery and the Artist.
