鸣 Resonance

2022 - Ongoing



When anything in nature is unsettled, it makes a sound: the plants and trees are silent, but when the wind stirs them, they rustle. Water is silent, but when the wind agitates it, it ripples. It surges when something disturbs it; it flows when something impedes it; it boils when something heats it. Metals and stones are silent, but when struck, they ring. The same is true of people and speech: they speak only when there is something they cannot hold back. When they sing, there is a thought; when they weep, there is a feeling. All sound that comes from the mouth arises from some inner disturbance, does it not?

Music, too, is the release of what is pent up inside, expressed outwardly by choosing the best-sounding materials to amplify it. Gold, stone, silk, bamboo, gourd, clay, leather, and wood—these are materials that produce the finest sounds. Just as heaven selects the best ways to make sound manifest in the seasons: birds chirp in spring, thunder roars in summer, insects buzz in autumn, and wind howls in winter.

— From "Preface to Meng Dongye" by Han Yu, Tang Dynasty


Likewise, through painting, I let my soul resonate within my physical shell, creating sound from the inside out. It becomes the sole language, a form of expression where inner turmoil finds its voice in visual form.





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Ailin Yang