Circumambulating to the front of the sculpture again, the devotee’s head now suddenly appears to be in the position of his genital organs.8 Such transgressions in the depiction of sacred subject matter, and the constantly altered “meaning” of Li Chen’s sculptural works depending on the position of the observer, distinguish much of his later work, especially in more recent years. On the far side of the living room, in front of the window facing the garden, and suspended above the sofa, is The Sound of Nature from 2004. This sculpture depicts a truncated, stylized Buddha, this time in the form of a voluminous, hollow bell. In his left hand the Buddha holds a mallet with a small head in bronze wrapped in cloth tied together with a strip of leather. Each ring of the bell is an echo of the heartbeat of the person striking its surface and a unique record of their life experiences. Suddenly one is aware that the Buddha is wearing headphones designed to aid spiritual hearing. The irritation caused by the presence of the headphones, and by the breach with traditional iconography, are intentional. In an interview reproduced in this volume Li Chen notes that “some people think that I have abandoned Buddhist iconography. But I am looking for something which meets my own spiritual needs.” 9 Among other art works in Li Chen’s carefully choreographed living room are Cause from 2003 and Visiting Fairyland from 2004. The former consists of two figures, one black the other silver, embracing on a mountain in a state of bliss. The title of the work refers only in part to the principle of “cause and effect” and the Buddhist concept of Karma, the cycle of suffering and rebirth.10 Instead, the artist explains, the central theme of this work is transmigration of the soul and the notion of yuanfen or “predestined relationship.” 11 The second sculpture, Visiting Fairyland, portrays another blissful figure, leaning strongly to its right, with a black body and silver head, and evokes “a realm of innermost emotion of riding the wind and becoming one with nature.”12 Although both these sculptural works refer to spiritual subject matter, they depict cross-over figures who would be as comfortable in the narratives of popular culture and mass media as they are in their role of spiritual metaphors within the traditions of Pure Land Buddhism.
Origins and Sources: The Library Western audiences and critics tend to see Li Chen’s sculpture as being firmly established within the traditions of Oriental art. In the words of the
writer Ian Findlay, he has made “a modern version of Buddhist iconography that speaks directly and simply to the world today without sacrificing the spirituality of it”. 13 Critics from Asia, especially China, on the other hand, who are familiar with Buddhist iconography, look at Li Chen’s work “in terms of the differences to traditional sculpture.”14 Indeed, in an online review of Li Chen’s most recent series of works, Soul Guardians: In an Age of Disasters and Calamities, Deka Xia remarked, “I've come to believe Mr. Li’s art is a dialogue with Western art and ideas.“ 15 If the choreography of Li Chen’s living room traces the artist’s spiritual and artistic passage from 1998 to 2004, his study / library on the second floor of his house is dedicated to his artistic and intellectual development, and to the sources of his inspiration. His library confirms that Li Chen is well versed in Western art and culture. In addition to numerous volumes on Chinese applied and fine art there are monographs on Western sculptors such as Michelangelo (1475-1564), Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and Henry Moore (1898-1986). A volume on the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali (1904-1989) complements surveys of contemporary Western art. Of particular interest is the presence of numerous publications on African and Oceanic art. Among them is ART/artifact, an important exhibition catalogue from 1988 published by The Center for African Art in New York, which addresses the complex issue of how “art museums deal with art made by people who do not call it art” and how “Western outsiders have regarded African art and material culture over the past century”. 16 This catalogue addresses not only the finer aspects of historical and contemporary African art but also fundamental issues surrounding the ordering and presentation of non-Western art in Western art institutions. One of the distinguished authors of the catalogue, Arthur C. Danto, introduces his catalogue text with a quotation from Rudolf Witthower’s Allegory and the Migration of Symbols: “We must sharpen our critical judgment, for the pitfalls of superficial affinities may lead and have led to strange misconceptions.” 17 While wishing to avoid strange misconceptions of the work of Li Chen based on superficial affinities and chance purchases or gifts that have found their way into his library, I would nevertheless agree that his work is in dialogue with Western art and ideas as Xia Deka noted.18 The more important discovery, though, is that it is African and Oceanic sculpture, fine examples of which are to be found in his study together with numerous Taiwanese folk art and Chinese Buddhist sculptures, which have enriched his art. Li Chen, commenting on the influences on his
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