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Harmony, Yu Yu Yang, 1993 commission: location: In front of Republic Plaza « go previous go to next » go back to list

Created in 1993, put in this site in front of Republic Plaza in mid-2001. Yu Yu Yang (aka Yang Ying Feng) was born in 1920, in Taiwan. His family moved to Beijing to work in the film business, and he spent his seconday school years under the Japanese occupation. He went to Japan to study art, but returned to Beijing without finishing his degree after the bombing of Tokyo. In later years he returned to Taiwan (the biographies gloss over the exact circumstances here). After some years in Rome, he set up a studio in Tailuge, on the east coast of Taiwan. In the 1980s he participated in the planning of Beijing's Pingtai district. He has had a strong influence as a teacher, counting Ju Ming as one of his students. In 1983, he drew up plans for a Space & Technology Art Centre in Singapore.

text of the label affixed to the work:

Harmony, 1993, 248x126x126cm Yu Yu Yang 5/9 the fenghuang, or phoenix, embodies the quintessence of fortune, elegance and beauty. These qualities are brought to hear, along with modern technology, to construct this statue of a young dragon and phoenix representing the Chinese character for human (ren). In traditional thought, the image of man joined to, or with the earth represents harmony and boundless energy; the round ball in the staute also stands for this idea. The space within the statue represents the universe and oneness (yi) and the pedestal beneath it resembles the Chinese character for mouth (ko) and so together the enture sculpture represents the Chinese word for " join" or "cooperation" (he). In this statue, we see man and heaven joined.

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