1. The Eyes You See Are Imagined

[I feel wood should not always come in blocks or labeled for heaviness in beauty.]

It seems a desire to completely shun away from the limitations imposed by the society, functionality or weight. It is a wish to be free from the institutionalization regarding how life should be arranged. This is the reason why Liang’s work always conveys a sense of forgiveness and leeway for out of order. It allows for questioning, sparkles and marches forward in wake of chaos. All his series “Gravity Release”, Wings (飛行系列), Anti-Beasts (非獸), “Utensil & Anti-Utensil”, “Mask”, and Book & Illegible Book” are opposition to gravity, to classification, to practicality, and to perceptions in daily life. He admits [I like sensitive topics. They are a fuel to generate connections]. Liang’s work is astute and astounding because the audience has a hard time settling for the plethora of possibilities once the uncontrollable conjectures have been triggered.   

It is this unique that does not go away urges the audience to become more aware of blind consensus.

If what you see if not real, but the scripted answers, can we still trust our eyes? Liang’s artistic language in sculpture has gradually become a way for the viewers to get in touch with the world. A new experience is created by art and a new approach is inspired. His work “Square Embryo” 【方體胚胎】contains no practicality as generally perceived. It is not a useable tool, or a chair to sit on. Functionality is discarded and replaced with a glow of pure beauty. This is not an ordinary new world, but an entry point to a wider horizon that the artist seeks to develop. What is worrying is that most people are afraid of being different. They simply make it easy by applying frameworks. The artist challenges this convenient and complacent strategy. His work is a sharp criticism that a viewer following the crowds is a viewer without the eyes. 

 

The sculpture without weight and as thin as a cicada’s wing looks like an object you can go through. The visual lightness seems the inevitable transition of change in time and space. If everything is created by countless probabilities, where is eternality? If eternality is an illusion, what is constant will be ever changing. The waste land suddenly disappears in the shifting landscape of reality. We need to brave to come to terms with what is fading away. 

A new creative habit is developed, by exhibiting unusual expressions through different gestures. Liang said, “Creation is interacting with the medium, and the medium seems to have its own emotions.” “I look at it for a long time before I go with flow in sculpturing. It will come out by it own, slowly but surely.” It is a process of constant standoffs or conversations. Each movement is supported with consistency in quietness. It is the trace of self-realization that resembles the grains of life.

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2. Don’t Pretend You Know Yourself

Liang’s work is like a confession. It is a struggling quest to see the true self. He attempts to move toward to his desired destination. “I try to seize the great force that I cannot describe or see clearly, but it is there, drawing me in. I do not know what it is, but I wish to express it so that others will be touched.” This is the reason why he strives on. He hopes its life can move on its own, so that it can be felt, absorbed and appreciated. By that time, it will be throwing himself toward the direction he wants.

Of course, each artistic has his/her own preferred elements, as they endeavor to reflect his/her existence to artworks. Liang’s technique is laying bare, like unpeeling unions layer by layer. The gesture in each sculpture is a deliberate act of discarding the appearance. What remains, on purpose, is the warm and gentle temperament in depth. The balance is hard to achieve, as it mirrors and contributes to the existence of the artist. It is also a fleeting moment in eternity.

Liang’s work [曉鷹Eagle at Dawn] is not an identifiable object as perceived. It does not have a form that can be related to. Rather, it presents an alternative provocation.

[Squirrels] comes with an enigmatic charm, amid a myriad of folded crevices. It is not a naked exposure. Rather, it is an obscure hiding that the viewers cannot take their eyes off. It is not the bluntness surging suddenly. Instead, it is a new world full of miracles. Because of it, the world where the audience lives starts to change, and triggers changes in another way.

Art can also be a stimulus. It inspires us to question what is taken for granted. It encourages us to seek transformation and hear our inner voice. It opens our eyes to the essence previously covered. What cannot be disregarded is the artist himself. Each carving, each detailed turn, each vanishing sculpture equate to themselves. It is beyond words. It cannot be erased or described.

In Liang’s work【Butterfly Mask蝴蝶面具】, the conflict between wood and metal is clearly showed. The struggle between these two materials sounds like the groaning of pain of finding no bosom friends. The dense grains on wood seems to suggest persistence is foolish. For a special reason that nobody knows, the artist would rather throw away the old baggage. The only wish is that truth will not be covered or overlooked.

 

[Art藝術] does not create these forms. It is the selection and organization of forms, in order to enhance, preserve and refine the experience and perception (Note 1).

對於無償，對於生妹，對於銘向are what keeps the artist coming back time and again. He is happy to disrupt the knowledge and classification of the audience. He deploys unconventional techniques to create liberalized artworks to intervene in the viewer’s life. The artist challenges the concept of timeless eternity in the mind of the public. His works intend to raise questions in the chaos without answers and attract the greediest eyesight in pursuit. Each exploration becomes a whole new connection. The heterogeneity in his artworks highlights the fight against shunning away from innate uniqueness or thoughtlessly succumbing to popular ideas.

If individuals choose to denounce themselves, sacrifice themselves and refrain themselves, it shows their vitality is undermined. Compromising is to allow void in life. The most magnificent promise ever is to prohibit any excuses for stopping.

Compromising is living in hells because it makes you miss everything. Not following the crowds is the most high-profile mode of existence. It is also the most poignant choice made by free will. Liang’s work does not offer superficial consolation. Each carving and each removal detail the process of struggle not erasable. The artist is not settling for the false pretense of peace. Detailed work can be found at the back, the bottom and hollows of his sculptures. Thefinal expression by the artist is a testimony of his deliberate processing, exploration and refusal to compromise. The existence of the artist is manifested in the new model of creativity. This is a brave new world filled with the subjective will of the artist, and the audience needs to be part of it.

 

Note:

1、John Dewey[Experience and Nature],Traditional View,Jiangsu Education Press，2005，Page 248