Taichung | Bingyi: Maze of Mind

Twelve years ago, in the summer of 2013, Bingyi went to the Longhu Mountains to paint Wanwu-the metamorphosis of all beings-the first in a series of reality-scaled land-and-weather-artworks created at sacred mountain sites across China. That year she loaded a truck loaded with massive sheets of bespoke xuan paper and her painting materials and drove from mountain to mountain looking to capture the essence of history and nature in a single site. She finally arrived in the Longhu Mountains where Chen Rong (1200-1266) the Southern Song master supposedly practiced Daoism and painted dragons. It was in the Longhu Mountains that Bingyi found her ideal site for painting Wanwu. Absolutely monumental in scale-coming to over 24 by 18 meters in area-the gigantic, dancing, flying shanshui paintings embodied the potent admixture of richly-layered historic memory with boundless natural power.

 

Twelve years later, in 2025, Bingyi returned to the Longhu Mountains and created her Lightening Series and Tallisman Series paintings. The Lightening Series portrays the "lightening" connection between the universe and all things that exist on earth, namely, the enlightening power that brings life and happening to the world. One can think of the Lightning Series as an extension of Bingyi's land-and-weather artistic practice that connects Wanwu-all beings-with Tian-the encompassing universe. If one, familiar with Bingyi's artistic practice, might have anticipated the development of the Lightening Series, no one-even the artist herself-could have foreseen the emergence of the Tallisman Series. The Tallisman Series artworks are non-writing, non-painting, non-action, but at the same time all of the above. They appear to be magnificent "creatures" that come out of the artist's body and mind. Unlike most other abstract or automatic paintings, Bingyi experiences the creative process as literally giving birth to these mysterious creatures. She believes that that non-thinking is the most powerful and original creative state of being, one in which the artist can channel the intelligence of the universe through these paintings; the human body thereby becomes the triggering brush that manifests these great forms and spirits.  

 

In her Talisman Series artworks, Bingyi abandons the Western binary opposition between the "figurative" and the "abstract", and argues that whether abstract or figurative, once you remove the qualifiers "abstract" chou 抽 and "figurative" ju 具, what remains is "manifestation" xiang 象. This notion touches upon why Bingyi returned to the Longhu Mountains after a twelve-year interregnum. During that time, Bingyi continued to explore the notion of the Mind and consciousness. She now sees awakening of the Mind as a communion of Wanwu and the Universe. "心即万物，脑即宇宙" her belief that "the Mind is all that exists; as the brain embodies the universe itself" is expressed through the wholistic notion of xiang. The Tallismans are the ultimate xiang that allude to all kinds of historic phenomenon, calligraphy, abstraction and symbolism but nevertheless stand completely as their own being. From action, automatic painting, calligraphy, shanshui painting and the unique geomatic power of the Longhu Mountains, the Talisman Series artworks newly emerge as the purest form of life and an unprecedented manifestation of the ink art language.

 

This Exhibition ties together twelve years of Bingyi's artistic practice dealing with consciousness and intelligence. She finally explains her thinking on the Mind in the most concise and direct fashion: in terms of painterly expression. She sees the Awakening of Mind as Lightening paintings, as the movement of Mind itself and she sees Tallisman as the body giving birth to the image of the Mind. Whether it is abstraction or figurative, heaven or earth, mind or brain, Bingyi presents her recent works as a maze of beauty and contemplation.  

 

All three series-Wanwu, Lightening and Tallisman-bear a strong connection to Taiwan: twelve years ago Bingyi created Wanwu at an art center in the Longhu Mountains supported by Taiwanese musician Liu Jiachang. In 2025, Bingyi returned to the Longhu Mountains, prompted by her meeting with Jason Chi - artist, curator, designer, and founder of Limitless Arts - in Taipei that May. Through a collaboration between the artist, The Limitless Arts Center and INKstudio, this distinctive body of work will be exhibited to the public for the first time in the form of an immersive installation within the maze-like, ancient structure of the The Taiwan Prefecture Confucian Scholar Examination Hall in central Taichung.