/ Chen Ke-Hua

 

I used to be in the mandala-making trade. Personally, it felt like a spiritual  practice; however, looking at the mandalas alone, there were people who found my works too geometric, and there were some who found them too religious. Prior to that, I had photographed flowers,as I grew up in Hualien, the flower capital. Later, at a Zen class, I thought of this famous story in Zen Buddhism: the Flower Sermon. In the sermon, Buddha picked up a flower and smiled to himself, quietly without a word. How did a flower make Buddha smile? Why a flower and not something else? What did Buddha see in the flower?

 

It was then I realized that each flower is itself a Mandala of the physical world; every being can sense, see, and envision a “personal universe” in a flower. The flowers of our world are corporeal, yet are also spiritual emblems to us.

 

Thus I went back to making flowers again, adopting a method that is slightly more complex than the one before; photography first, followed up with digital post production. After printing, the works are enhanced with ink pens for the outline and colouring. The result is

again another cross-medium affair - something I have always been partial to; the finished works look all like photographs and prints at once, with some semblance to ink-wash painting.

 

These works are a new generation of mandalas to me: they are both corporeal instruments and spiritual symbols. Many a time when I lay my eyes on these works, I cannot help but smile; is there Zen in them?

 

With this I invite you to experience it !