At the rooftop garden of the Asia Society Hong Kong Centre, nine sculptures by Taiwanese artist Lee Kuang-yu stands in the open air. Their forms bend at peculiar angles, some defying easy interpretation. Each sculpture holds a paradox: a sense of fullness, yet a loud emptiness.

Lee draws Buddhist philosophy to explore this tension. An empty space does not necessarily mean a void of nothingness. Lee sculpts this paradox, similar to the interplay between truth and illusion. “Originally, I used to create three-dimensional, volumetric art. But later, I came to feel that in this world, what is real is also illusory, and what is illusory is also real.”

“The elegant postures and lines in my sculptures are actually derived from calligraphic strokes, which I studied before,” he adds.

From one angle, the sculpture might appear structured and intended to picture something concrete. But from another, the artefact lines dissolve, its form becomes hard to be depicted. It is this duality of existence and nothingness that Lee is trying to portray in his work.

“What you see is a single, fixed piece of work, but in my art, if you would like to see the thought process, you need to look at my several pieces consecutively, because that is a projection of my mind,” Lee says.

This dualistic message extends beyond this hidden backyard in Central. Likewise in emotions, joy and sorrow coexist. As an artist, Lee recognises this in his creative process. There is pain behind a passionate sculptor.

“When I'm creating, I'm also very passionate, but any passion brings excitement and pain,” he says.

The duality between reality and illusion, presence and absence, drives Lee to sculpt. His pieces, spanning back to 2008, will remain on display until the end of December.

Picture credits: Orange News

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