The Book of Humanity
Three volumes of red books hang in the air, where red lines seeming like blood vessels flow out and spread across the land, producing a red human figure. The tension of Chinese cultural spirits winds forward to affect the world.
Square Earth, Round Heaven
Square Earth, Round Heaven is the way in which Chinese ancient philosophers perceived the world. The state where sky and earth were undivided was called Taiji by ancient Chinese, where Yin and Yang, sky and earth were allegedly derived. The ancients considered the sky circular and the earth square, and thus circle refers to the sky while square the earth.
Many modern scholars have though given varying interpretations or had doubts on such proposition. Some of them even considered it a subjective sense of cognition by the ancients which doesn’t scientifically make sense. Personally, I cannot agree on this. The Book of Rites (《礼记.大戴礼》) has raised such question and given clarification, when it says “Is the sky circular or the earth square? Answer: The Dao of sky goes to circle and earth square. When a circle is set up to cover a square, couldn’t its four corners be concealed?”
When it comes to the natural world, all objectives that are circular, are in the nature of movement of instability, such as the everlasting movement of the sun, the moon and the stars, and “the sky being circular” therefore symbolizes the sun and represents the motility of nature; while those that are square are born still and stable, as orientation of land remains unchanged, so “the earth being square” becomes the symbol of Yin, standing for the limitedness of nature.
“Being circular is being unstable, while being square is self-restrained” (Tai Xuan) is a philosophical proposition raised by Yangxiong of Western Han Dynasty, which could be reinterpreted as “the sky is circular and thus produces movements and changes, while the earth is square and thus is restrained and resting. Human has to pursue for realization of ideals in order to accomplish great deeds and keep moving forward; and society has to abide to rules and regulations so that it could remain stable and peaceful, and the world auspicious and harmonious.”
Square and circle is intimate to each other and together forms an alternation system, there is a sky on the earth while an earth in the sky. The two relies on each other in conflicts. The harmony of square and circle, is a pattern of worldview and cosmology abstracted on a metaphysical stand. The representation of square and circle we give today is not equivalent to any patterns on the historic theories of sky and earth, and I thus hold that it is endowed with a value of production and existence on present days.
Human Wall
The division and homing of little red men’s positive and negative figures serving as a primary principle, more than 80 thousands little red men are separated by from 30 red great-wall bricks, intensively establishing a human wall, indicating the power of spiritual unity.
Lv Shengzhong
Lv Shengzhong, born in Shandong Province in January of 1952, received his master degree from China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1987 and now serves as a professor and Dean of School of Experimental Arts of CAFA, as well as member of China Artists Association. His signature work “Little Red Man”paper cuttings represent the power of traditional Chinese art in the transformations of modern history. In 1992, he participated in the 9th Art Kassel, the 1994 Fukuoka Asian Art Show and 2003 Venice Biennale. Among his significant solo exhibitions are “A Decade” (Chambers Fine Art, 2010, New York), “Jiang Ji Xiang” (Eslite Gallery, 2003, Taipei), etc.