地方天圆

Chambers Fine Art is pleased to announce the opening on September 6, 2007 of Square Earth, Round Heaven by Lu Shengzhong. This will be the artist’s third exhibition at the gallery, following First Encounter in 2001 and The Book of Humanity in 2004. Lu Shengzhong works in the traditional Chinese medium of paper-cut. During the more than twenty years in which he has worked almost exclusively in this medium – the major exceptions being a series of free-standing metal versions of his signature motif, the Little Red Figure – Lu Shengzhong has developed extraordinary technical skills and has moved far beyond the self-imposed limitation of his original source of inspiration, the decorative and symbolic works executed by peasant women.

The two New York exhibitions have shown a remarkable development. For First Encounter the majestic panels of Poetry of Harmony and Great Peace and Tranquility occupied the walls of the gallery, creating a hushed, somber environment in which the intricate filigree of shapes cut from red paper gleamed in red against a black background. Three years later in 2004 the focus moved from the walls to a series of obsessively crafted books and objects titled Human Bricks in which the shapes of many thousands of Little Red Figures carved from rectangular stacks of paper were mounted in many layers and fluttered in the breeze.

At first glance the six geometric forms, three cubes and three spheres carved from paper in the present exhibition, seem to indicate that Lu Shengzhong has discovered Minimalism, paying his respects to the Little Red figures only in the eight figures that support the spheres. But as Robert E. Harrist, Jr. points out in his introduction to the catalogue, appearances are deceptive. “At the center of the five exposed sides of the cubes are “peep holes” that invite the viewer to look inside. Doing so results in a surprising discovery: inside the cubes are spherical voids. What cannot be seen is that the spheres are hollow as well. These voids and corresponding solids were produced through a methodical sequence of steps. Lu Shengzhong began by cutting circles of graduated diameters from the square sheets of paper that make up the first cube. These circles, stacked on top of each other, form the first sphere. From within these circles, Lu cut squares that yielded the paper for the second cube. Circles cut from the sheets of that cube form the second sphere. Lu continued cutting squares from within circles, and circles from within squares, until producing the final sphere, which is solid.”

The relationship between positive and negative shapes cut from paper and between solids and voids are rich in cultural and philosophical associations. Harrist refers to familiar conceptual binaries such as yin/yang, body/soul, inner/outer, spirit/form and Chinese/foreign that are deeply embedded in Lu Shengzhong’s consciousness and revealed through his mastery of technique.

As Christophe W. Mao remarks: “The art of Lu Shengzhong defies all expectations of what contemporary Chinese art should be. It looks back in time thousands of years and seems to be unaffected by what is going on in the world today. That is particularly difficult in Beijing as the city gears up for the Olympics. There is not a trace of antiquarianism, however, and no self-consciousness at all. The geometric forms of Square Earth, Round Heaven represent a dramatic shift in Lu Shengzhong’s work as it moved with great assurance into three dimensions.”

*A catalog designed by the artist will be available.