Dialectical Approach to Yin and Yang – 2019

 

Installation (black clothes, remote controlled window panels, and sun light).

Installation view, San Francisco Art Institute, Studio 10.

 

This work provides an untraditional approach in comprehending Yin and Yang theory through an activated discourse between the artist and the audience. The black clothes divide the installation space into two parts, one with shades and the other with lights. The split environment is altered by remote controller repeatedly closing and reopening the windows in each space. This demonstration was followed by a discussion in order to analyze the theory, which was originally delivered in ancient Chinese text 易經 (Yi-Ching, Book of Changes). A fundamental philosophy that constructs East Asian worldview on universe, the idea explains the ever-changing quality in nature that are governed by the dichotomy of two polarizing forces—yin and yang—and their activities occurring based on chance. Light and dark, heat and chill, life and death are some examples of the theoretical phenomena. Dialectical Approach to Yin and Yang is a conceptual threshold for acknowledging Asian culture and philosophy through a method recognized in the Western world in which Greek philosophy had adapted via dialectic reasoning.