Zheng Chongbin: I Look for the Sky

artists monograph for Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

from the introduction by Zheng Chongbin:
The title I Look for the Sky suggests that the works in this exhibition contain no definite form. When I look up at the sky, at the vast universe, the world beyond us seems disrupted. On the one hand, the sky is the realm of abstract physical and biological properties, with phenomena including light, shadows, airborne dust, and other particles. On the other hand, it is connected to us in many concrete ways: we look at it, we breathe air in and out, and we are enveloped in light.
This exhibition is site generated. In any given space, there is always a play of light and shadow that surrounds us. Light and shadow interplay in every aspect of our culture, past and present. Light triggers our perception and puts us in touch with what is real. Light thrives in our complex ecological network and alters the environment. Light prompts darkness. Darkness summons light. Light throws a bridge from the known to the unknown universe.
The assembled, fragmented pieces in I Look for the Sky were never about a fixed object, but rather about the shifting relationship among the fragments—a resonance, a natural chemistry, a hybridity. Culture and nature need to share the same space; society, all living beings, this physical planet, this Earth are interconnected. This is the conundrum, the challenge we face: to create patterns that are cognizant of what we affect and are affected by.

64 pages
10 x 8.5 inches