For the next seven months the Museum of World Religions (世界宗教博物館) will be holding a special exhibition featuring a selection of Buddhist figurines created out of the innocuous and distinctive mediums of wood, straw and mud.
Entitled Buddhist Sculpture of Shanxi Province (山西泥菩薩展), the exhibition's eight centerpiece works, all of which are duplicates of famous Buddhist sculptures from Shanxi Province, have been specially made for the museum by one of China's leading mud art craftsmen, Shi Zengxin (石增喜) and two of his students, Ji Guojun (籍國軍) and Chen Hongliang
(陳宏亮).
According to the museum's director, Han Pao-de (漢寶德), the current exhibition is the first time that Taiwanese audiences have been able to view such mud sculptures. It is also the first time the museum has sanctioned an exhibition which allows artists to use its exhibition hall as both display area and work space.
Following in the footsteps of monks from Shanxi Province, who first used mud as a medium to create figurines over 2,000 years ago, Shi was introduced to the age-old Chinese art form of mud sculpture at 19. Forced to forgo his art studies during the Cultural Revolution, it wasn't until 1980 that Shi was once again able to recreate Buddhist effigies out of mud and straw. Since then he has created over 2,000 works, many of which have been given pride of place at museums and monasteries throughout China.
Featuring mud sculptures of eight Buddhist deities, what the exhibition lacks in magnitude it certainly makes up for in its eye-popping and spiritual creativity. The works on display took the three mud sculptors over three weeks to complete using only simple wooden tools and their hands.
The exhibition features mud replicas of famous sculptures of Shakyamuni Buddha (釋迦牟尼佛), or the enlightened one; Amitabha Buddha (阿彌陀佛), the Buddha of Boundless Light, a Lying Shakyamuni (臥佛), Manjusri (文殊); the deity of wisdom, Samantabhadra (普賢); the primordial Buddha of the Nyingma School, Skanda (韋馱); the ultimate warrior, and also the epitome of knowledge, Avalokiteshvara (自在觀音); the deity of Compassion, Bodhisattva (脅侍菩薩), who sacrificed his own enlightenment for human kind; and Arhat (羅漢), the perfected one.
Along with the finished articles the exhibition also features several smaller works that remain in different stages of completion. These have been left in an uncompleted state in order to show visitors the lengthy and time-consuming processes employed by Shi in order to create his mud sculptures.
For your information :
Buddhist Sculpture of Shanxi Province (山西泥菩薩展) runs through Sept. 30 at the Museum of World Religions (世界宗教博物館). The museum is located at 6/7F, 236, Zhongshan Rd, Sec 1, Yungho City, Taipei County (台北縣永和市中山路一段236號7樓).
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