Ju Ming's Sculpture - the Living World at Hong Kong Museum of Art 2014

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15 June 2014

'Hell is within the living world, but the living world also has a paradise.  Which way would you go?  It's all decided by you.'
地獄在人間, 人間有天堂. 問君何處去, 但憑一念間.


Life in the living world is both hard and happy.  It depends how you treat problems and appreciate good stuff around you.  One can perceive work is difficult and demanding.  The other can treat it with happiness to challenge itself and to win,  Results: satisfaction and joy.


Ju Ming is a Taiwanese sculptor, got famous in the 1970s and well known in New York in 1983.  His artist life began as teenager's time.   He learnt sculpture from Lee Chin Chuen and works on various materials: stone, stainless steel, painted wood, styrofoam, pottery, etc.  I like his works as it is around people, at his time or the modern time.  Affection, relations are reflected.
 
 
His core series include Nativist, Taichi and Living World.  Most of the exhibits in Hong Kong this time is his Living World series. Fabulous and full of warmth when appreciating his talented art.   The exhibitions showed his three facets, from the Affectionate World to the Floating World towards the Carefree World.  

 
The subject and the content have undergone a multitude of changes, beginning from the more down-to-earth depiction of the living world and eventually returning to a deeper philosophical inquiry.  They reflect how the focus changed from concern over the form to an internalised philosophical quest.


Each of us plays different roles in the society.  They interweave into a complex network.  Through his series of works of different subjects He shows the status and people's behavior within the social stratum.  His value at family is reflected through the sentiments permeated through his art pieces.



Works of the Floating World series depicts all walks of life.  They are people you see every day.  They look realistic but you may not know what they are doing and they do not have an intention to tell you.





Those below show the overcrowding in the reality.  People squeezed together, have no individual space.  Helpless!





The content of the Carefree World is the opposite of the title.  He complaints about the society.  No freedom to the point that humans are in cages.




The one below depicts the Chinese character 囚.  In the middle is human 人.  It is caged in a prison 囗.  Abstract and philosophic.




Location: 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

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