| With
Season's Greetings
from Sun Yu-li Dec 20, 2003
Mapping the Universe 2003
Back in Time
Exhibition : on site painting (10m x 10m)
Date : 12th to 31st, January 2004
Time : 10.00am to 6.00pm daily, open for public viewing
Venue : the Pavilion on the Square ( Far East Square)
32 Pekin Street, Singapore 048762
Contact
: Tel: 63367188 for detail Email : sunyuli@pacific.net.sg
I still believe in the possibility of a model of reality-
that is to say, of a theory which represents things themselves
and not merely the possibility of their occurrence. Ideas
and Opinion (p276), Einstein
Based on the Universal Language he discovered, Sun Yu-li
will embark on his fourth attempt to “Map the Universe”.
It is his way of expressing how a pair of conceptual and
structural dots can expand, under a simple set of structural
and transformational rules, into a complex picture which
represents the Universe.
He
has successfully completed this series of paintings three
times- mapping the Solar System, the Milky Way, and the
Black Hole in December 2000, 2001 and 2002 respectively.
|
Article
IN
PURSUIT OF THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
Click
Here
to read Chinese Version
If
life is a big stage, everyone can be said to be between
the entrance and exit. In that case, Sun Yu-li’s thoughts
and art strive to go beyond the entrance and exit to enter
directly into the primeval, and reaching into the horizon.
It is an endeavor to reveal the eternity of the universe,
nature and man, to appreciate that glorious moment where
heaven and man meet.
The
“yin/yang” school of thought is the pinnacle
of philosophy in Chinese culture. Be it the oriental art
of Zen, Bohr’s theory of quantum mechanics, or Einstein’s
theory of relativity, they are all intricately linked with
the “yin/yang” theory. Perhaps it is the mutual
inductance of yin and yang in the universe, which first
led man to civilization, and similarly it will now inspire
man back to a simple state of a higher order, towards the
bright future.
In
the West, Nietzsche (1844-1900) announced in a sorrowful
voice “G-d is dead”. Soon after, many poets
took the route of suicide to resolve the hopelessness of
life. The late philosopher, Heidegger (1889-1976), then
went about searching for “God’s hidden whereabouts”.
With the industrial revolution sweeping the whole world,
men began to indulge themselves in commercial matters, resulting
in feelings of helplessness, loneliness, loss, and absurdity
welling up spontaneously.
How
then does one regain the meaning of life? How can one recover
the powerful force of life’s origin? Are there any
clues in the Eastern world?
Definitely - Sun Yu-li is the seeker.
Mr
Sun Yu-li spent over twenty years of deep thinking, pondering
over the yin/yang graphs (specifically the He-Tu and Luo-Shu)
and topology (specifically the planar graph and its duel),
to reveal the mutual inductance of the yin dot and yang
dot using a penetrating, original and succinct graphical
language. This, he believes, could offer an explanation
to the objective state of nature, culture and civilization
of the East and West, and the true meaning of life. It is
an attempt to use an objective and natural method that he
calls the Universal Language, which surpasses content such
as the individual life and even the entire civilization
of man. Using only the metaphysical moulds, he seeks to
reach the ultimate or initial state that is classified as
null, yet objective; cold, yet harboring the expansion rules;
in pursuit of the origin of life.
Sun
Yu-li’s thoughts on formal space and his switch from
architect to sculptor are peculiar experiences. When a dot
moves it form a line. When a line moves it form a plane.
When a plane moves it form a three-dimensional space. The
process is a perfect dynamic equilibrium. The touching moment
is at the point of Genesis, when Yin dot meets the Yang
dot, which creates an explosive force at that instant of
collision. Art to him is just an embodiment of philosophical
thoughts. The all-encompassing spirit of using the formal
language to fuse the arts and sciences of the East and West
contains vitality, heavenly principles and lofty ideals;
revealing the sacred ground of Genesis which surpasses individual
and group, natural and artificial, and stability. It can
be said to permit the mind to expand infinitely and the
spirit to speed across the universe. He strives to rely
on this as a basis to dispel the ultimate concerns of modern
man.
Looking
at Sun Yu-li’s art, one can strongly sense the great
wisdom of ancient Eastern philosophy, but also the simplicity
and abstraction of formal language, which is truly a powerful
form of conceptual art. Just like his thinking, clear-cut
and to the point, which can quickly expel the confusion
in the hustle and bustle of modern life to point out a clear
path from obscurity, and from chaos to a systematic train
of thought, he can also accurately capture the “pair
of dot”, an ancient yet modern formal language, from
numerous graphs, to encompass the massive and the minute.
This perhaps is the most promising message that can be communicated
throughout the Universe, and is an eternal existential form.
Thus,
we can see that Sun Yu-li's art is completely different
from those of other Western artists. It is like two parallel
lines that can come infinitely close to each other, but
never intersecting. In Sun Yu-li's works, one cannot find
great suffering, anxiety, melancholy, and immeasurable joy
that exist in other sculptures. He has already reduced love,
relationship, holiness, and detachment to the minimum in
order to reach the harmonious state of man and nature, and
manifest Genesis at the meeting point of heaven and man.
May
Sun Yu-li's art reaches eternal sublimation.
By
Wang Maolin
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