Yuan Rate
Meng Luding
孟禄丁
Production date
2011
Media
acrylic on canvas
Measurements
300 x 300 cm
Notes
Radiating energy like an exploding star, ‘Yuan Rate’ suggests centrifugal force and the pulsating energy of the universe. In the Chinese title, 元速, Yuan 元means the origin/source of the universe, the beginning of time – the pronunciation is as the same as 圆 (circle) – and 速 means speed. Works in this series evoke the significant Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian concept of ‘tian xia’, which in Chinese literally translates as ‘under heaven’, but its meaning is far more complex. Far beyond the visible and physical world, ‘tian xia’ implies a cosmology covering earth, heaven and everything in between, including the social, psychological and political worlds. The heavens were considered to be circular and the earth to be square. Archaeologists have discovered ancient Chinese artefacts, jade carvings, temple structures and sacrificial platforms which employ square (‘cong’- 琮) and the circle (‘bi’璧) forms in a symbology of the cosmos. Produced on a mechanical device that sprays pigment onto a rotating canvas, carefully monitored and controlled by the artist, the materiality of the ‘Yuan’ series, and its production process relying to some extent on chance, suggests the reciprocity of the Dao: “The ways of man are conditioned by those of earth, the ways of earth by those of heaven, the ways of heaven by those of Dao, and ways of Dao by those of nature.” (Chapter 25, Laozi, Dao De Jing).
Accession number
2019.020