cypress, 88x50x52cm 2020
Hinoyu wood 93x42x80cm 2019
55x56x15cm Zelkova 2008
cypress, 88x50x52cm 2020
Book & Illegible Book
“Knowledge itself does not tell people how to use it, and its instruction lays outside the book.”― Francis Bacon
Ping-Cheng LIANG releases the heaviness of wood itself by giving it a light imagery in “Gravity Release” series. While in “Book & Illegible Book” series, he precisely transforms wood materials into books with smooth and flowing lines. The artworks in “Book & Illegible Book” series are visually embodied contemporary Eastern elements that demonstrate a beautiful posture in form of scrolls.
Books are the media that carries knowledge. Exploring the origin of paper can trace back to the papermaking as one of the four major inventions in ancient China. Easterns have been fond of wood since ancient times. They’ve bounded papers into books that record the crystallization of human wisdom that has been passed down to immortality from ancient times to the present. Although we are moving towards an electronic generation, we are still accustomed to the touch and reading pace through papers. That is why “Book & Illegible Book” series is more worthwhile to be “read” carefully and thoroughly in the current 21st century.
The carved curly papers in “Book & Illegible Book” series often form a spiral outline at the end of each page which are reminiscent of the volutes in ancient Greek Ionic order. In fact, most of Ping-Cheng LIANG’s sculptures have strong architectural features. He injects symmetry and harmony, movements and flow in response to the structure of his works, which make his creations are both sculptures and micro-buildings.
LIANG is not aiming at creating “Hyperrealistic” works and thus it is not about how realistic his works are when we appreciate his art. Although we cannot “read” “Book & Illegible Book” but this serial works of art enables us a direct association that this unreadable book comes from wood and vice versa. This evolving translation of imagery enriches the work’s meaning and leads us to further explore its aesthetic concept. Undoubtedly, LIANG knows the exact place of his artworks, that is quite on the border between modern and contemporary, tradition and innovation.
Ping-Cheng LIANG 梁 平 正