【Artist Snapshot】

Seclusion andmetamorphosis, Rebirth from woodcarving      

文｜謝祝芬    攝影｜林育緯

《Mirror Media》Financial and economic figure  Feb/17/2018 10:30

Born in Pingtung, Ping-Cheng Lianghas been a person with avant-garde thinking starting young age. He founded Stupid Bird Painting Society, questioning traditional art and challenging existing frameworks, and he is a winner of the Lion Art Young Artist Award. In late 1980’s, Liang went to New York for further study and finally he realized all of a sudden that the place where he was born was the source of his art and life. After returning to Taiwan, he started a career in interior design and architectureconstruction. After several years of running business amidst setbacksand hunker-down, he settled in Sanyiliving asa recluse andregained his passion for art creationto develop unique artistic languages in wood sculpture. Under Liang’sburins, a piece of heavy wood stock would be turned into tender and graceful book pages or utensils with beautiful curves. The sketch-like texturesand grains on the surface of his sculpture exemplify his “weight-reducing” techniquesand have heaviness of the bulk materialremoved.

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“Quite a number of sculptors have been thinking how to give trees life, but in fact each tree shall have its own look. I intend to show original personalities and appearances of the wood.”What Liang wants is to make artistic creationstogether with the trees rather than putting our own thoughts on the trees forcefully. As Liang once put it, “During the process of carving, we can clearly see that each piece of wood is like a human and each has its ownpast. What I intend to do is to dialogue with the wood and retain its original appearances.”Inthe eyes of an ordinary sculptor,a piece of wood with bored cavitiesis not a good choice, but Liang will use such cavities in his creations. “In the beginning of my carving, what this piece of wood would become isusually not decided yet. The idea in my mind would become more and more clear as the carving work proceeds.”To carve in compliance with characteristics of the wood is the philosophy of creation Liang has learned from wood.