Li Chen 李真 | Cause 三生石

Private Asian Collection

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亞洲私人收藏

Li Chen: Energy of Emptiness2007 Solo Exhibition at 52^nd International Art Exhibition-La Biennale di Venezia, Asia Art Center, Taipei, 2007, p. 148-153 (another edition)

Li Chen : In Search of Spiritual Space 2008 Solo Exhibition at National Art Museum of China, Asia Art Center, Taipei, 2008, p. 84-87 (another edition)

Through the Ages-Li Chen, Asia Art Center, Taipei, 2019, p. 170 (another edition)

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〈李真—虛空中的能量：第52屆威尼斯雙年展〉（台北，亞洲藝術中心，二〇〇七年），148至153頁（另一版數）

〈李真-尋找精神的空間：中國美術館個展〉（台北，亞洲藝術中心，二〇〇八年），84至87頁（另一版數）

〈古往今來—李真〉（台北，亞洲藝術中心，二〇一九年），170頁（另一版數）

Venice, The 52^nd Venice Biennale, Energy of Emptiness – In Search of Spiritual Space, 10 June - 21 November 2007 (another edition)

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威尼斯〈虛空中的能量：第52屆威尼斯雙年展〉二〇〇七年六月十日至十一月二十一日（另一版數）

During the Tang Dynasty one literati, Lee Yuan, became mentored with the Monk of the All Seeing Eye. On his death bed the elderly Monk of the All Seeing Eye prophesied: “One gestating a child for three years, urgently awaits my rebirth in her child’s soul, to be her newborn son.” “And during the Mid-Autumn Festival twelve years later, we will meet again at the Temple of Heavenly Reeds”. As expected, the child smiled at Lee Yuan, but then quickly departed and died thereafter; upon another cycle of twelve lunar years, Lee Yuan arrived as expected, but met a little shepherd boy at the Temple of Heavenly Reeds, and as Lee Yuan smiled at the young shepherd, he realized that the shepherd indeed was the reincarnation of the Monk of the All Seeing Eye; so was inaugurated the Lee style of contemplative martial arts, the distant but near path, to be pursued in contemplation, as there is always alas, yet hope, for another day.

Many Asian contemplative secrets are not reducible to simple language, they reflect concepts which may appear at first glance contrary to logic, and whilst interlocuting about so many different matters, much like a whiff of dust or dandelion in the breeze, it all depends on karma. Experienced karmic masters may experience a triplet of karmic reincarnations together.

Continuing the aforementioned story of the rebirth of the Master of the All Seeing Eye, Li Chen’s work: Cause, concerns the potentiality for commingling of aspects one soul amongst many souls and bodies. Li Chen has re-envisioned and rearticulated these two images, like the Nanny Maria and the Captain in The Sound of Music, with each having their own appearance, synergistically engaged, with the darker image reflecting the more real; and the lighter spiritually evoking the ethereal, with the bodies in darker colors, and silver for their spirits, thus it is that Li Chen describes the status of his individual existence- life and the deeper spiritual life, engaging a profoundly provocative and ever present percussive dialogue. Where spirit engages spirit in a positive dialogue, caringly, with love and concern, as we arrive to the deepest pure aquifers where both physical and spiritual works interface with unity.

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相傳唐代人氏李源，與圓觀和尚結為好友。圓觀年老臨終前交代：「一位懷孕三年的女子，待我投胎成她的嬰孩。因此我死後三天，你去找到那位女子，成為嬰孩的我會對著你笑。」「而12年後的中秋，我們再相約天竺寺。」果然，嬰孩對李源笑，但也很快就去世了；12年後依約到天竺寺的李源遇一牧童，李源向他招呼，而牧童確為圓觀的化身，他開示李源道，俗緣未盡，應修行不懈，後會有期。

因緣妙不可言，是用邏輯難以解釋的事理。漫長人生路上的茫茫人海，人就像一顆塵埃或芥子，不斷與各種不同的人事物碰撞出一個網絡，似有緣份引領。緣份久長者或可「緣定三生」。李真透過作品以視覺性圖象表達，詮釋藝術家的「因緣論」。

承接上述轉世投胎的故事，《三生石》亦可指同樣的靈魂套入不同的肉體。李真將黑白兩個人製作成同樣形貌，互為鑲嵌，深色如實體人物，銀色則是靈魂，李真藉此描繪自己的存在狀態──生命與靈魂的擁抱指出兩造正面對話，互相愛護與關照，探測肉體與靈魂更深層的境界。