相見歡 春紅
La Serre
Oil, acrylic, ballast, sand, cement, ash, bronze and iron rust on canvas
120 x 160cm, 2022-23
林花謝了春紅，太匆匆。無奈朝來寒雨晚來風。
胭脂淚，相留醉，幾時重。自是人生長恨水長東。
––––李煜
Mandala 曼陀羅
These six greenhouse paintings—from winter to winter—complete a circle, forming my Mandala. The term Mandala, drawn from the Sanskrit for ‘circle,’ resonates through Eastern traditions—Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto—evoking the cosmos, balance, and unity. It stands for a sacral locus wherein the finite self meets the infinite, a psychic geometry of transcendence.
For Carl Jung, the Mandala represents the Self, a numinous image of the psyche’s striving for wholeness through individuation. Thus, the Mandala at once reflects the particular inward journey of self-discovery and the grand outward order of the cosmos. It harmonises microcosm and macrocosm, inner sanctum and universal design, forever mediating between our immediate, mortal apprehensions and an eternal pattern beyond.
‘Every birth entails separation from the cosmos, enclosure within limits, isolation from God, and painful self-renewal.’
