Painting: Cycle 2021

Cycle 2021

40 inches x 120 inches (101*303m)

Acrylic on Rice Paper Scroll

2021

Ans Li

Video: Artist Talk

The initial concept of this drawing was inspired by the Buddhist idea of Samsara, which means the cycle of existence. It is believed that a person has a pre-existence, a present life and a future life. If a person accumulated merit and virtue from his pre-existence life, then he is blessed in his present life. However, if he committed a sin in this life, then he will suffer in his future life. There is always a consequence for your actions. Enlightened by this thought, I divided our present life into three distinct parts: the past, the present and the future. I wonder, how does the past affect the present? How do our present activities influence the future?

We continue to practice some hobbies and habits from the past to the present, and even in the future. The past affects the present, the present impacts the future. The past, the present and the future are all tightly connected and they seem to form a causal relationship with one another. However, we might overturn our past. For example, things that I loved before, I might not like anymore. In this work, I raise various questions such as, do we create the past? And does the past make us who we are right now? How are we affected by the past, how do we overturn the past? Is the past real?

When we recall a past memory, it is actually a reconstruction of the actual event. This process is heavily influenced by numerous factors such as perception of a distinct reality as well as one’s faith and imagination. The past can be blurry, disorderly and unreal. Is my memory real? If the past makes us who we are today, but the past memory has been skewed, then how do we define ourselves? The present, which is this moment, is short but real. How about the past? “The past” can be close to us. This is because the last second of the “present” is the past. However, when we talk about “the past,” we normally think about things that happened a few years ago. “The future” is the same—the future can be ten years from now and it can also be in the next second. The future is full of knowns and unknowns. Since the next second is the future, there are many things that we can correctly predict. However, can I accurately predict what will happen after ten years? I cannot. I can only set a hope for the future and hope to have a bright future.

If the past memory is jumbled, and the future is just our imagination. The only real thing is the present. If this is true, then what is the relationship between the past, the present and the future? This is what I want to explore.         

Cycle 迴 2021 

101 x 303cm

紙本丙烯

2021

黎小盈

視頻： 藝術家講解

在構思這個作品時，我最初的想法來自於佛教的“輪迴”概念。佛教認為人有前世，今生和來世。上一世積德多，這一世會有福報。這一世造孽，來世就需要承受前世所造的罪業苦磨一生。“前世因，今生果”。受到這種思想的啟蒙，我把我們當下所處於的這一世分為三個部份，分別是過去，現在和未來。我要探討的是過去，現在與未來三者之間的關係。例如，過去是如何影響現在，現在正在做的事又會怎樣影響未來？是我造就了過去，還是過去造就了現在的我呢？

過去影響著現在，現在對未來造成影響。表面上，過去，現在與未來形成因果關係，但仔細想想，現在的我很有可能在顛覆我的過去，現在正在做的事也有機會在未來被改變。在這個作品中，我提出了許多問題，很多我還沒有答案的問題。例如，我們是如何被過去影響，又怎麼顛覆過去呢？“過去”在我們生命中是個什麼角色？過去是如何“欺騙”我們的？因為當我們在回憶的時候，其實是我們對某一件事物進行重構，而這個過程會受到很多東西的影響，譬如感知，信念和想像。回憶時，我們的大腦會進行虛構，自動補充我們忘記了的細節。所以過去是模糊的，混亂的，甚至是不完全真實的。那麼，記憶中的過去，哪些是真的？哪些不是？如果說過去成就了現在，但過去又是混亂的，那我們要如何定義現在的自己呢？

現在，就是這一刻，短暫，而又真實。而過去呢？其實過去可以離我們很近。因為“過去”是“現在”的上一秒。“現在”很快就會變成“過去”。只不過說到“過去”，我們通常想到的是幾年前，甚至幾十年前的事。“未來”也一樣，未來可以是十年後，也可以是下一秒。“未來”是充滿已知和未知的。由於現在的下一秒就是未來，所以很多事我們可以準確的預測到。但我能精準預測到十年後發生的事嗎？我不能。我只能對未來給予厚望，期望我能擁有一個順遂的未來。

如果說過去，或者說記憶是雜亂的，而未來也只是我們自己的想像。我們能確認真實存在的，也就只有現在這一刻了。那過去，現在和未來到底存在什麼關係呢？我很想知道。