ART-PRESENTATION:Lee Kuang-Yu, A Sculptor’s Secret Garden
Lee Kuang-Yu’s works crosses cultural and historical boundaries, representing a cultural marker in which traditional Buddhist and Daoist thought intertwines with modernism. His work cannot be assigned to any usual stylistic category. Instead, his works create a unique language with his incomparable skill, style and materials which in turn embodies the complex nature of Taiwanese art while representing the essence of Taiwanese culture.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gardens by the Bay Singapore Archive
On the level of sculptural language, Lee Kuang-Yu’s work opens up the enclosed structure of sculpture with his characteristic techniques. It creates the unique form, style, and concept of the “void,” and demonstrates “the concept of silent void in the Oriental culture” that embodies the state of unifying the object and the self. It not only displays aesthetic values but also reveals the artist’s contemplation on the state of life at that moment, conveying contemporary social implications. Lee Kuang-Yu presents “A Sculptor’s Secret Garden”, the first full scale art exhibition in Cloud Forest-Singapore. Cloud Forest is one of the cooled conservatories in the internationally-renowned Gardens by the Bay, a national garden and premier horticultural attraction in Singapore that showcases the best of garden and floral artistry for all to enjoy in the heart of the city state. For Lee Kuang-Yu, this exhibition marks a departure from his past museum exhibitions. The sculptures are released from the confinements of the white cube space and placed amidst lush vegetation, against the stunning backdrop of Cloud Forest’s 35-metre-tall epiphyte-covered mountain with its own waterfall. His bronze sculptures are based on three themes: “A Quiet Respite in the Garden” , “Beautiful Memories” and “Man and Nature as One”. These sculptures were brought overseas to be exhibited from his garden nestled in the mountains of Xizhi in Taipei called the Secret Garden, which also houses his studio. The exhibition starts at The Falls at the entrance with his iconic work “Thinker” (2014) paying homage to Rodin’s masterpiece and at the same time Asian sculpture tradition. In Lee’s reinterpretation of this classic work of Western sculptural history, he approaches this from calligraphy which embodies the essence of traditional Chinese culture. Next proceed up to Lost World at the top of the mountain featuring cloud forest vegetation around 2,000m above sea level, where you will find “Empty Procession” (2014). This work delineates a figure dancing in a state of bliss. The expression is so vivid and infectious that viewers can actually feel the dancer’s joy. Here, Lee Kuang-Yu adopts a linear element to outline the dancer’s physical form and movement.
The downward journey along the aerial walkway allows a view of the city and at the same time, a peek inside the mountain to see “Wandering in the Misty Mountain” (2013) and “Hermit” (2019), Lee Kuang-Yu’s expression of the fusion of the human body with mountain body. In “Wandering in the Misty Mountain”, Lee Kuang-Yu pays tribute to Fan Kuan’s masterpiece, “Travelers among Mountains and Streams” in the National Palace Museum collection with the primary visual component that inspired his work. The artist transforms the shape of a hand into an enormous mountain, and uses his signature openwork technique to create a hole at the center of the hand – opening the space to one’s creative imagination. The positioning of a cloud element with the hand mountain resonates with the theme of a misty mountain. “Hermit” can be read as Lee Kuang-Yu’s self-portrait, reflecting both his mental and physical state living in the mountains. The artist opens up the central space of the sculpture by incorporating the element of cloud into the opening – expressing his daily experience of being surrounded by mountain mist that has inspired his artistic practice. “Girl on a Lotus Leaf” (2016) portrays a girl lying on a lotus leaf in a peaceful and relaxed state of existence with nature with her back facing the viewer. The beautiful young body of the maiden in her prime is in stark contrast with the withering lotus – a universal reality that everyone must come to terms with aging. The exhibition ends in full circle at the Secret Garden at the base of the mountain, where Lee’s lotus pond-inspired, ephemeral-themed “Timeless” (2008), a signature work from Lee Kuang-Yu’s recurring lotus theme. As a child, the artist often played around lotus ponds and became familiar with the life cycle and looks of the plant. Lotus displays distinctive physical features throughout the seasons. It grows in spring, flourishes in summer, withers in autumn and fades away in winter. The lotus growth cycle is reminiscent of human’s life cycle – hence Lee often uses lotus as an analogy for life. A woman is depicted lying wrapped within a luscious lotus leaf in the embrace of nature. “Timeless” is also the artist’s attempt to express the fleeting blissful moment when human and nature co-exist in harmony.
Info: Curator: Tan Hwee Koon, Gardens by the Bay Singapore, 18 Marina Gardens Drive, Singapore, Duration: 6/8/20-27/6/21, Days & Hours: Daily 9:00-20:00, www.gardensbythebay.com.sg
