ARTIST
STATEMENT

My practice is mainly concerned with the transformation of ghosts into Buddhas. Before Buddhism was introduced to China, the country had a rich culture of ghosts and monsters, the most famous of which are the Classic of Mountains and Seas. The legend of ghosts and monsters cannot be separated from the spread of Taoism, but when Buddhism entered China, it brought a different view and interpretation of ghosts and monsters, and as I said before, including indigenous religions and cultures such as Taoism and Confucianism, blended perfectly with Buddhism. In traditional thinking, ghosts are scary and can harm humans, and the public is even less likely to accept them, and in traditional Chinese culture there are many classes of ghosts. But when Buddhism came to China it brought with it a very important idea that all beings are equal, no matter what race you come from, even animals, plants are all equal, everything can be a Buddha, even if you are a ghost or a monster.

 

I used six legendary tales to draw how the ghosts and monsters in my mind became the Buddha, using water colour to make a base sketch and then Photo shop to modify various parameters to achieve the effect I wanted.

 

I chose to give them different colours to find the feeling after I had done the black and white basis. For example, when I was working on 'Kitchen or Stove God', I thought of the image of the door god that is traditionally put on the door at Chinese New Year, which struck me as very interesting.