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Yin Zhaoyang - Radiation
 

Press Release
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Yin Zhaoyang -
Tearful Buddha, 2008 Chinese Marble

Radiation: Yin Zhaoyang's new series of paintings and sculpture, depicting the process of cultural and personal maturation, will be exhibited at DF2 Gallery, Los Angeles, from September 6th to November 8th, 2008.  Yin Zhaoyang's visual language, as expressed in this new body of work, was inspired by the Chinese Buddhist art collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where he visited in 2005. During that visit, the artist was deeply moved by the transcendent beauty and tranquility of Buddhist iconography, and by its power to communicate across borders and centuries.  If the visage of Mao Zedong that Yin has previously portrayed was consonant with the end of youth and innocence, his reinterpretation of these ancient Buddhist artifacts examines the beginnings of cultural wisdom and self-revelation on both the personal and collective levels.

The title of the exhibition, Radiation, references the glittery pattern on the surface radiating across each canvas like rippling water. Waves of energy, emitting from the Buddha’s forehead, mouth or solar plexus suggest the divine resource of power, concentration, knowledge, and the absence of fear.  Yin renders the weathered historical Buddhas on his canvases to heighten the reassurance, strength and blessings sought by generations of Chinese Buddhists. In his previous works, Yin investigated contemporary Chinese mythologies of place and the political hero/villain in his paintings of Tian’anmen Square, and the quasi-Deus symbol, Mao Zedong.  By exploring the philosophical continuum of Chinese Buddhism, Radiation highlights the instability of China's developing self-image while simultaneously looking at the eternal individual quest for the appropriate response to life and death. If his previous works presented confrontations between the individual and the collective, history and memory, identity and spirituality, his current celebrates the harmony of spiritual enlightenment and pays homage to the rich cultural heritage of China.

Also included in this exhibition is the artists' most ambitious sculpture to date, Tearful Buddha, carved from a single piece of white Chinese marble.  The work features the artist's own naked figure, seated in the lotus posture with fists clenched at his chest and red wine pouring out of his eyes. By moving from images of the Buddha to his self-portrait, Yin expresses the desire to depart from the vexed and politicized state gripping so many individuals in a nation changing at break-neck speed, and to engage in a more complex historical examination of a world that is both ancient and new, both universal and individual.

Radiation is on view at DF2 Gallery from September 6th to November 8th, 2008. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, September 6th, from 6 pm to 8pm.