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A Metaphor of the Silkworm - Heaven, earth, man and God

Author: Liang Shaoji 2021

It is indeed the artist’s intention to create an immersive domain rather than forge an object in isolation. In the magical hall of PSA - a gigantic iron structure rising from a former power plant, I am wondering how can the subtle, delicate, fragile beings cope with the challenges of space? I contemplated, wandering through the vortex of architecture, history, psychology, and art, and revised my drafts several times. Eventually, a dialogue full of grandiosity between Heaven, earth, man and God is unfolded, utilizing the special structure of PSA – the gaps between the upper and lower floor of the hall, the staircase and the elevator.

Looking down from the fifth floor, the long and narrow colonnade on the right side of the hall looks like a sunken pit. Thirty pieces of 2 meters high and 1.1 meters wide rusty iron chain, either crawl on the concrete floor or dangle high from the beam. The white silk tightly entwines around the twisted chain. Entangling together, yet they seem to fight against each other, revealing the prologue to the Divine Comedy, and the Inferno is followed by the Purgatory. We can perceive the strength and vitality of the silk how it triumphs over rigidity with its softness. Just as William Blake said: " Energy is the only life and is from the Body." (*quote from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell)

Seventeen strange and clumsy old wood scattered around the hall. The thousand-year old camphor wood and agarwood heavy as iron are lying still, the silk light and vibrant as cloud is permeating their twisted and cracked skin. The deserted history as if enters the rituals of the mummies. The Silk soars up, carrying the wood, resting on the scaffolding of urban architecture, or finding its way directly to "The Temple", - a “Cloud Path”. Adjacent to it is the "silkworm-shaped passage"- a dome-shaped silk (semi-mature silk) constructed on the elevator, and from a distance its overall shape looks like a wriggling silkworm. When people walk into it, they are examining the world from the perspective of a silkworm.

Undoubtedly, "The Temple" is the most psychedelic space on the second floor. With 30 meters long, 12 meters wide, and 10 meters high, it stands upright in the cocoon shape. Passing through the narrow doorway, the mysterious churches and temples, the religious atmosphere ushers in, and the sound of the Mass resonates. The 9-meter-high pillar of light that symbolizes the Three Saints glows with the dazzle of the nebula image while the monument stacked with the will of life looks like a crown of thorns – the sky dome is reflected by the shadow of the iron spikes which are wrapped in silk. What is surprising is that the high walls of this grand hall are made of temporary, cheap corrugated boards and steel frames, showing another image of sheds, slums, isolation walls and broken glass windows. Faced with such a bewildering and deep space, I cannot help but wonder: Is it a "Heaven in dream"? How in reality do we awaken the hearts of people who are gradually blinded by darkness and evil?

When I was standing in front of the silk cone, a girl in her first year of junior high school asked me: "Can the moths in the iron frame fly out? Where are the silkworms after they lay their eggs on the cone?" Not until I have replied, she went on murmuring to herself: "It gives the light to others, so the silk cone lights up, and the cone is the cocoon." I was amazed and realized in the younger generation the reason why light becomes light. It is because even if hope seems dim, it is not extinguished, and I also sensed the profundity and significance of seeing the world through a silky entanglement.

Related Artists:
LIANG SHAOJI 梁绍基

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