Year Two · Lao Mu / Meng Chunsheng

The keyword of the second year is 「sitting unmoved」. This directly corresponds to the split structure of 「Lao Mu」 and 「Meng Chunsheng」: Lao Mu anchors the Physical Body and Etheric Body, bearing the weight of care in Kunming; Meng Chunsheng is active in the Astral Body and the Ego, continuing the lightness of art in Jingdezhen. The fragility of ceramic and the reproducibility of the mould allegorize the fluidity of identity — which is the 「true body」? The juxtaposition of shell and core constitutes the ongoing dialogue, in the Jungian sense, between Persona and Shadow.

In 2014, his mother was diagnosed with cancer; doctors pronounced twenty days. The artist flew back from Beijing, splitting into 「Lao Mu」 and 「Meng Chunsheng」 — one caring for his parents for three years, the other creating in Jingdezhen before abandoning it. Referencing the Tibetan Buddhist 「three years, three months」 retreat, he designed his own secular practice: Year One, abstinence; Year Two, sitting unmoved; Year Three, fighting poison with poison. Carried to hospital by ambulance, wheelchair-bound for half a year. The little vegetable-market bicycle is the entire instrument of dharma and the third retention.