Myriad States Between Myriad Worlds

Myriad States Between Myriad Worlds is primarily concerned with the flux of being, the flow of time and the ceaseless rising and falling of all phenomena. We could call this time but I prefer the term ‘impermanence’ which is a fundamentally Buddhist understanding. The philosophies of Buddhism and Taoism are central to my work. It is through these ancient spiritual beliefs that I find my deepest connection to my Chinese ancestry. The practice of Ch’an (Zen) gives me an anchor to understand my existence and belonging. Over the millennia, Chengdu was central to development of both Taoism and Ch’an Buddhism. For these reasons it is especially poignant that my first solo exhibition in China is in Chengdu.

As many of us who have diasporic backgrounds, I’ve struggled with a sense of belonging in my adopted homeland. Australia in the 1960s was a predominantly colonial Western society that had not embraced its underlying multicultural fabric, which it now celebrates as one of its greatest cultural virtues. Living as a diasporic Chinese person, I felt suspended between worlds, none of which seemed fully substantial and which fuelled my early work. I went through a period of deep examination, testing my difference against a Western horizon. As my work evolved, I moved from seeking belonging to realising that I am not neither wholly Chinese nor Western.

Ch’an Buddhism became the perfect spiritual framework for me. It not only linked me in a very personal way to my Chinese origins, but it encouraged me to develop my initial question of “Who am I?” into the more profound “What is the nature of existence?” My work as an artist is a surrender to forces that are simultaneously greater than any individual life but in which each individual is inextricable to. These forces are what I call cosmos, which is the length, breadth and depth of everything that has existed, exists right now and will exist in the future. Cosmos is a vast web that connects everything and is something that we can never fall out of. All phenomena are the result of all of history and time converging into this present moment. Through this exploration I now understand that we are all intrinsic to cosmos. There has never been a single moment of not belonging - we are all part of this vastness and beauty of experience.

The interdependency of humanity and nature inspires me to use the elemental in my work. I live in a rainforest in the countryside of Australia, far away from any major city. Bushfire, drought and flood is deeply embedded in the Australian experience and is innate in my work. This is how I have come to use the elements of fire and water as my materials. I relinquish my ego in order to participate with the rain and fire as it does its work with the wood, inks, metal and paper I use. It is a meditative process that quietens the mind - the habitual thoughts and everyday opinions are dropped, making way for the silence in our souls to receive the wonder and beauty of the world. My job as an artist is to allow people an opportunity to attune to that inner quiet in order to experience, however briefly, the exquisite intimacy of their own belonging to that which is greater: cosmos. It has taken the vast history of time for this moment to arise. Miraculously each life contains the whole of history and yet in this present moment in which we are genuinely inhabiting our lives is utterly unique and will never come again. That is the paradox of myriad worlds.

-Lindy Lee