Postscript
Liu Chuyun
In the sweltering heat of Shanghai's summer in 2022, Xieda and I prepared for the inaugural exhibition of the Ark Project. At the time, it had been 15 years since the launch of the last artwork series, which bore the title, Sages' Sayings. Old friends would certainly marvel at the difference between the Ark Project and Wang Xieda's Sages' Sayings or my earlier series, What Confucius Did Not Talk About (子不语). This is because we ourselves have changed.
In the summer of 1998, when single artists Wang Xieda and "Liu Lu" (Liu Chuyun) sauntered along Third Road at the pace of one kilometer per hour under dimly lit streetlamps, the two were discussing what it meant to be an artist. The young bachelor artist Wang Xieda thought that the artist's role was something akin to that of "prophet and priest"; the artist should serve as heaven's messenger to humanity, sending out heaven's call to all creation, to a world trapped amid smoke and flames. The literary and artistic young bachelorette concealed her surprise with an impassive expression: how strange, she thought, that the very questions that had been troubling her since she was eight years old should somehow be connected with the artist!
Since the age of eight, the young woman had sensed that everything her eyes could see would one day pass away, but also that there was an eternal transcendence. What exactly was this transcendence? She carried the question with her as a secret, letting it guide her actions until finding an answer that would connect her with the artist.
In 2000, these two single artists joined hands at the local registry office, changed their status from single to married with their signatures, and embarked on a life of mutual love and support. We also set out together on a spiritual journey in search of an answer to our questions. At several points, we felt compelled to give up just as we thought we might be approaching the answer.
Wang Xieda's Confucius Said and my earlier series, Confucius Is Silent, launched in 2007, fell into this period. We were constantly on the lookout for an answer within our own familiar frames of reference, while we shielded ourselves from the world's struggles and strove in our works to leave the world behind us. We also hoped that our art might help people escape the din of reality and join us in our search for answers that would lead us to eternity, where we would cross the river of time.
In 2013, Dr. Zha Changping came to the studio to look at our works. After he entered the room, not only did we detect the fragrance of flowers from the courtyard in the air, we also came to know the answer to the question we had been asking. Initially I thought that apart from discussing our artwork, we would delve deeply into conversations on the Daoist philosophy taught by Laozi and Zhuangzi. Little did we know that Dr. Zha had immersed himself in Daoist teachings many years earlier but had long since become a Christian scholar with a Protestant foundation. Through him, our miraculous Creator opened the door for us to step onto the path that would lead to the answer we were searching for.
While studying the Bible, we experienced true fellowship with the eternal Creator. What we had not expected was that this fellowship unfolded within a human community. On one hand, we were eager to read and study, and we discovered that the zenith of our previous learning—philosophy—was nothing but the handmaiden of this new knowledge of the Creator. On the other hand, we entered a space in which social distinctions were overcome because all of us were in a fellowship that transcended divisions among people; we began to understand the reality of human nature and the world in ways we could never have anticipated. No matter what the ups and downs we experienced, we were covered by grace.
When we had not yet learned of a way to confront our difficulties and move on, all we could do when facing the world's reality was to hide our faces. We escaped to the countryside, imagining that beautiful, transcendent world, seeking comfort in a flower, or in a blade of grass. When we began to realize that the world's greatest mystery is that the Lord of creation became human, bearing God's righteous wrath, and that this was the way out of all human suffering, we knew we had the strength to face reality.
"You can have no greater sign of confirmed pride than when you think you are humble enough."
— William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
For a long time after our conversion, neither Xieda nor I produced any new works of art. We became more and more aware of who we were in relation to God, as well as in our relationships with others: in my relationship with God, I am simply a human being; when I relate to others, I can clearly see evil within myself, and become aware of the change that the incomparable grace of God can achieve in my life. Beginning in 2015, this inspiration began to show itself. A vast expanse of water would appear in Xieda's mind. We thought that more concrete content would follow [but that was all he saw in his visions]. God began to inspire me with ideas on how to represent this theme, which we found puzzling.
In 2018, we finally decided that the best way for us to move forward would be to work together and so the Ark Project was born and began to take shape. As we discussed the project with others, we realized that the identity of the artist as "awakener" from our conversations under the dim light of the streetlamps all those years ago, an identity that has been realized in the artist countless times in history, was also becoming part of our own identity as artists through our work on this project. In his iconic composition The Scream, the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch once lent expression to the anxious and desperate cry of an age that had been severed from eternity and had suddenly lost all sense of meaning. In our own era, which seems to have abandoned all rationality, may God use the Ark Project to connect us with likeminded artists and help us to grapple with ultimate questions and eternal answers.
I want to save my most important thanks for the end. Thank Amanyangyun International Community, Nan Shufang, and Tasia spring water pu'er for supporting the first exhibition of the Ark Project. I thank my family for supporting us through all these years. It is because of your love and understanding that Xieda and I have been able to pursue our ideals. I also want to thank our three good scholar-friends who were kind enough to write articles for us: they provided sustenance, answered our questions, and offered invaluable guidance along the way. We are grateful, too, for our spiritual family, with whom, looking toward eternity, we've entered this new relationship that has opened our eyes to the truth of human nature and, by God's grace, has given us a taste of heaven. We are grateful for old friends with whom we had lost touch for a while. When we reemerged from our hiatus, you were understanding, considerate, and supportive. I hope we can savor God's grace together and enjoy a deeper fellowship that reaches into eternity.
(Translated by Naomi Thurston)