Man Fung-yi’s Art
Text: Gao Minglu—Weaving Intimacy: Body Lines by MAN Fung-yi Sept 2009
Rarely could we find artists who could merge philosophical thinking and the detailed feelings of everyday lives in their art. Female artists with such abilities are of an even rarer breed. However, Man Fung-yi stands out above other artists in this regard.
In her master thesis at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Man eloquently exposed her thesis in Abstraction in over 20,000 words. In the thesis, she explored how state of nothingness is represented. In another master’s thesis of Man, “The Revelations of Indian Philosophy-and An Interpretation of Two Western Brut Artists’ Painitngs”,she said, “To the west, which focuses on logic, the East’s focus on culture appears mystical, unexplainable, and unfathomable; to a point that mysticism relates to blurred and confused, and the negative connotation of paranormal, and magic, there exist a great misunderstanding and prejudice between the two cultures. The challenge for the next century between the eastern and the western cultures will be for the west, an extroverted culture that exalts rationale, tools, knowledge and efficiency, to explore ways of agreeing with the eastern culture, to discover the deeper meaning of life, the origins of being, the development of civilization, and the apex of life’s wisdom: mutually supporting each other, and filling in each other’s shortcomings.” What a grand theology! In fact, this is just realization of the future. I recalled my recent writing on “Theory of Yi Pai(a synthetic theory against representation)”, which seemed to have struck a note with Man’s proposition.
In fact, for the early 20th-century circle of educated Chinese, this was also their ideal to combine western and eastern elements. This is the ideological evolution for China. Actually, the evolution of the modern Chinese did not occur over an explosive development of scientific theories, but over a consolidation of differences. However, this evolution was cut short by Chairman Mao’s Proletariat revolution. It was not till the end of 20th century did this ideological evolution reappear, which should certainly bear fruit in the 21st century.
Man Fung-yi’s enlightenment was after the undergraduate studies, in the ”Launder One’s Ego”, she cut her western paintings into long strips and rolled them into rolls, and placed them neatly onto a shelf. The work symbolized her salute to her past. On one hand, she was predominantly influenced by male professors. On the other hand, from then on, she was determined to merge the Chinese spirits into her art.
However, Man’s creativity in art had never been all over the place, there seemed to be lack of any grand narrative on issues. Her works are extremely moderate and introspective, and could even be the result of immense consideration of the philosophies of the east and the west. I noticed that over these few years, Man’s works are fundamentally related to “Being and Nothingness”. It is a relationship, in other words, Man seemed to be concerned about how the physical form and space of the artwork could create a relevance to people. “Being and Nothingness” is a form of beauty.
Being and Nothingness initially appeared in Man’s work where she used incense to burn holes on silk scrolls. This idea came about when Man became pregnant. Silk, embroidery seems to be related to women. Using incense to repetitively burn holes into old silk scrolls, leaving circular patterns of holes, resembling females in the past, who embroidered with needles with repetitive actions, yet did not resembling the meticulous steps of embroidery. The amount of strength spent to burn holes on to silk scrolls determined the harmony and balance of the wholes. In order to achieve such state of mind, the artist must cultivate her soul to be calm and mellow. Otherwise, the floral pattern would be distorted. However, in 2003, owing to a chronic disease Man’s family member acquired, Man insisted to use “embroidery” as a new way of prayer and blessings for the family. Nevertheless, it was very difficult to control the momentum of her hand. Later on, her family member was saved, and she subsequently named her work “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” as her gratitude to Heaven. At the same time, her “embroidery” became her pious practice, and her family member recovered.
Man’s cultivation of her soul gave her art its signature. Whether the creative media is sculpture, silk scrolls, paper or items that imitate items of everyday use, such as Man’s exhibit ”The Myth of Constellation” at the Spanish exhibition ”Chinese “Abstract Art” for 30 years which I curated last year, her work is a contrast yet balance between Being and Nothingness, just like the “embroidered pillow of bronze”.
Being and Nothingness to Man is a way to train the soul, and also the path to her heart’s secrets
Professor Gao Minglu
Gao Minglu got his Ph.D from Harvard University and currently is a Research Professor at the Department of History of Art and Architecture at University of Pittsburgh.
