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| A Face-to-face Dialogue: Li Chen’s Sculptural Art |
| By Deka Xia |
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 ao Tze's five-thousand words teaches us nothing more than his "Taoism," while what that Taoism or the later concept of Yuan or Zhen refers to is indeed open to later generations' interpretations. Then, as early as in 1999 at his first solo exhibition, Li Chen, a sculptor from Taiwan, has offered his own interpretation of these concepts. They are: "Energy and Emptiness."
 Sculptor Li Chen, born in 1963 in Yunlin of Taiwan, was not professionally trained in in art, but however, he is the first Taiwan artist in a century to be invited to exhibit at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. Many other artists from Taiwan have not received an art education, like the sculptor Zhu Ming, who employs mysterious taiji to represent cultural differences and powers, ink wash master Yu Chengyao, who did not take up painting until he was over 50 years old; Yang Yingfeng, who integrates Western ideas and Eastern aesthetics into a whole; and Li Chen, who endows traditional Buddha figures with unlimited possibilities.
These artists, born out of "the uneducated ordinary" and deeply rooted in traditional Chinese quintessential spirit, have earned great reputations for Taiwan's modern and contemporary arts. Exempt from the constraint of a Western educational system, they're more likely to start with their own acquisition of the cultural quintessence of several thousand years and to create their own style of work.
Li joined a sculpture group in middle school. In the early 1980s, he followed Xie Dongliang and learned modern sculpture. Nevertheless, his interest rested always in tradtional Chinese Buddha figures. Holding a principle of "aiming high" in mind, he toured around and sought to learn modeling techniques of traditional Buddha figures; when in western countries he would also go directly to sources to investigate Rodin's nude sculptures. Such a huge and professional accumulation has laid a solid foundation and forged a "free-creation" spirit for his later expressions.
As for the interpretation of "Chi" in traditional Chinese culture and the understanding of energy, he offers the idea of "Energy of Emptiness" and finally establishes his own art language.
 In the transition from folk Buddha figures to a pure art, his first satisfactory try came when he created "Water Moon Avalokitesvara" in 1992. Then, his solo exhibition in 1999 via Taipei Art International Fair showed an idiosyncratic aspect of his art. Since 2001, Li has begun the creation of a more personal series – "The Spiritual Journey through The Great Ether," in which full and plump figures are roaming between heaven and earth, among mountains and rivers, which represents more of Li's personal tastes. Li would casually draw with an ordinary ballpoint pen on paper thin lines of roaming figures as a base blueprint, then he would slowly turn it into a sculpture. Thick and heavy metal materials are transformed into light and floating figures, and such an antithesis corresponds very well to traditional Chinese sense of beauty: heavy changes into light, or strong changes into weak.
Then in 2008 after his large solo exhibition "In Search of Spiritual Space," Li issued a new series – the current Soul Guardians series and oil painting works that have been exhibited in Asia Art Center at 798.
This series has been in the planning stages for over a decade. In Li's own interpretations, Soul Guardians are "man-made and natural disasters," and "Everything is uncertain and has an illusory sense of value in this age of disaster." These words sound mysterious and abstruse but turn out to be a portrayal of the current society. In a talk with Mr. Li, we all think of the current financial crisis that's sweeping across the globe. Li truly wants to borrow Nature's divine power in man's mind to impinge upon man's insignificance.
 So comes the exhibition: in the very center of the exhibition hall stands the King-of-Hell-like judge with a writing brush and a life-and-death registry book in his hands. Beside his feet sets a small red chair. When people, particularly adults, sit with difficulty in this small chair, they are thoroughly placed under the eyes of the Judge. The small chair, as Li describes, is right prepared for 'small men', and these "'small men' are divided into two sorts: one is the modest man; the other ends up the villain who causes man-made disasters."
On the left and right sides of the Judge stand the heart-taker and the soul-taker, who hold a concave mirror and a convex mirror respectively, which can mirror one's nature of conscience and take away one's soul. Li seems to want to offer us an opportunity for a complete introspection – facing with the ancient divine power, whether individual is more insignificant or man will eventually conquer nature. In oriental ideology, the relationship between man and divinity has always been in a dilemma; even if "the order is established," man's relationship with divinity remains still one of absolute worship and dependence. It's all because of this that I've come to believe Mr. Li's art is a dialogue with Western art and ideas.
Naturally many of Li's art viewers would call to mind another name: Fernando Botero. The difference between Mr. Li and this South American artist who's famed for his full and fat modeling too? Actually it's an old question now. And in Mr. Li's own words, two professors in Taiwan once disputed with each other on his works: the Taiwan professor contends that Li's works are based on Botero's, while the American professor insists that these two artists' works are totally distinctive from each other.
This might have been a rather embarrassing situation most of the arts succeeding Chinese traditions are trapped in, i.e., they're incomprehensible to fellow countrymen, who then have to be instructed by westerners to understand them. Honestly, of course, Li's works do look somehow similar to  Botero's in appearance, but essentially these two artists are rooted in totally different cultural soils, and it's why Robert Storr, the American curator for the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, invited Li to exhibit in the Biennale. Because Botero's art is recognized in America, it seems that Americans who've made Botero a hit should have more say on this issue. In fact, South America's early agricultural prosperity and its peoples' attitude have endowed Botero's works with more of a downcast and unconcerned sense, whereas Li's works represent more of a sense of energy of inner emptiness, which is warm and elevated. When comparing and contrasting these two artists' works, surely we can't draw conclusions only in terms of their similarity in shape and structure. They have different focal points: one is material and another soul; whereas material is real, solid and heavy, soul is void, light and unrestrained; and only based on such an intrinsic difference should these two artists be distinguished.
Following this, Li will continue to improve and perfect his "Soul Guardians" series. Apart from Fire Guard and Wind Guard that are exhibited this time, Thunder Guard and Rain Guard will also make their debut soon, and "The Spiritual Journey through The Great Ether" series, which he treats as his private collection, will also keep roaming around the world. As for the oil painting creations he's just begun, they also deserve high expectations. After all, a true native art is to be appreciated by the world; it's one's distinctive face instead of a vague view of his back.
Translate: Hu Zhu
Li Chen solo exhibition "Soul Guardians" opens at Asia Art Center through October 18 — December 21, 2008. For more information, please contact: 86 10 5978 9709. 
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