Taming Training Balance

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2012 Traveling Solo Exhibition
Taming Training Balance
Siew Lian Lim

March 19 - 23, 2012: Taming Training Balance, MFA Thesis Exhibition, NIU Gallery 215 North, 215 N. Fourth Street, DeKalb; reception: Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 5:30 - 9 pm (Southeast Asian music by NIU Gamelan Ensemble, Dr. Jui-Ching Wang, Director, and performance by members of NIU Southeast Asia Club, 6-7 pm)

April 4 - 19, 2012: Horse Taming Mind Training Universal Balance, Columbia College Graduate Art Gallery (4th fl), 33 East Congress Parkway, Chicago, IL; reception: Thursday, April 19, 7 - 9 pm (Artist talk, 7:30 pm)

April 23 - April 26, 2012: Horse Taming Mind Training Universal Balance, Marmion Academy Gallery, 1000 Butterfield Rd, Aurora, IL; reception: Thursday, April 26, 3:30-5:30 pm (Artist talk: 4 pm )

April 26, 2012, 4 - 10:30 pm: Echoing Universal Balance, NIU Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability, & Energy Annual Film Festival, Egyptian Theatre,
135 North 2nd Street, DeKalb, IL; reception 7:15 pm

April 28 - May 16, 2012: Horse Taming Mind Training Universal Balance, Norris Gallery, 1040 Dunham Rd., St. Charles, IL; reception: Wednesday, May 16, 2:30 - 4:30 pm (Artist talk, 3 p.m.)

Restoring Balance

Echoing Balanced Spirits

According to popular belief, 3000 years ago, before the arrival of Hinduism and Buddhism in Java, animist priests would tell stories to the local tribe about their ancestors as part of the ceremony to honor ancestors. To illustrate the stories, the priests would manipulate puppets to cast shadows on a screen echoing the belief that the invisible spirits of ancestors would become visible at night as shadows. It is believed that from these performances evolved the shadow puppet theater known as Wayang Kulit in Indonesia and Malaysia.

I have been creating figures based on this tradition to convey the concept, restoring balance to gluttony and waste, by using repurposed materials - food wrappers and plastic soft drink cups. For this display, I have arranged my figures alongside puppets from my collection of traditional Wayang Kulit puppets from Malaysia and Indonesia in a way that both my figures and their shadows can be seen. Thus, the figures come alive and their spirits speak with one another.

Interrelated

I wanted to become a physician but instead became a “patient” in a Buddhist monastery and a student at Malaysian Buddhist Institute, Penang, Malaysia for over a decade. After ordaining as a Buddhist nun, I came to Chicago in 2000 and have been serving and teaching from birth to death in several Asian and American Buddhist organizations and the community at large while earning a B.A. degree in art and psychology at Northeastern Illinois University.

Thousand Prayers (2008-2009) Floor installation Fired Clay, lava stones, and rock 36“ H x 120“ W x 168“ D

Thousand Prayers
In portraying this one human being, I am portraying all sentient beings.
In one organic form live other organic forms.
In one leaf live noses.
In one nose live prayers.
In one Bodhidharma live all sentient beings.
In one nature lives the nature all phenomena.
In one phenomenon lives emptiness.
In emptiness lives all existence.

Who I Am (2008) Wall Hanging Fiberglass and Mixed Media 36” W x 48” H x 18” D

Who IAm
Am I a leaf?
Am I a nose?
Am I a prayer?
Am I a human?
Am I a creature?
Am I living?
Who am I?

Breathing the Same Air (2008) Wall hanging Painted Fiberglass
54” H x 42” W x 12” D

Breathing the Same Air

Within a profile of a sitting meditating figure seeing one stroke of Chinese calligraphy
Within one stroke of Chinese calligraphy seeing one island
Within one island seeing noses
Within one nose seeing we are all breathing the same air
Within one breath we see al life in birth, illness, old age, and death
Within birth, illness, old age, and death seeing conditions together and apart
Within conditions together and apart seeing conditions arising.
Within conditions arising seeing Dharma
Within Dharma seeing enlightenment.

Kong Xin's Portfolio

Floor installation for Within, exhibition at Northeastern Illinois University, Ronald Williams Library, August 25 - September 5, 2008

In portraying this one human being, I am portraying all sentient beings.
In one organic form live other organic forms.

In one leaf live noses.
In one nose live prayers.

In one Bodhidharma live all sentient beings.
In one nature lives the nature all phenomena.
In one phenomenon lives emptiness.
In emptiness lives all existence.

Floor Installation

May your prayers be answered.
May your heart generate warmth, peace, and harmony.

Outdoor installation, Northeastern Illinois University
Peace Garden

Peace is within you and me

Wall hanging

Within a profile of a sitting meditating figure seeing one stroke of Chinese calligraphy
Within one stroke of Chinese calligraphy seeing one island
Within one island seeing noses

Within one nose seeing we are all breathing the same air
Within one breath we see al life in birth, illness, old age, and death

Am I a leaf?
Am I a nose?
Am I a prayer?
Am I a human?
Am I a creature?
Am I living?
Who am I?

Within one cup
Is the total amount you can fit in.
Empty your cup and you are free.

Free Standing

Awakening occurs in any situation
any setting
Awareness of dripping water
Enlightenment is here
Here I am!

Lotus arises within the mud of ignorance and darkness
Yet
Has no attachment to the mud

The figure in the middle stands out as different and taller than the others.
When Bodhidharma came to China, the Emperor and the Buddhists rejected his Zen teachings and meditation.
He was forced to hide in a cave behind the Shaolin temple where he meditated for nine years
while waiting for someone who could accept his teachings.

I have felt like an outcast in America.
Caught between two cultures, East and West,
Between generations,
Between the religious and secular world,
Between traditional and non-traditional,
Between different mind states.
I am a piece of sandwich.

When I came to United States,
my meditation teacher, Ven. Chi Chern, gave me a carved wooden sculpture of Bodhidharma.
On the back of the sculpture I wrote in Chinese, “I will carry him with me wherever I go.”

Everything has a function
All beings to become enlightened
This piece is an incense holder.

Tears are warm
Unexpressed feelings are internalized
Unexpressed experiences are internalized.

Unexpressed mind states are internalized
Tears become cold

Removing the mask
Seeing the real features
Revealing the original face within the mask.

Urban life is one shoe within ourselves.
Being a monk is being a one-shoe beggar.

In his time, Bodhidharma was often seen carrying one shoe on a stick over his shoulder.
One day a messenger met the Bodhidharma and asked, "Great Master, where are you going?"
Bodhidharma simply said, "I am going to the west."
The messenger reported his meeting to the Emperor and was told that the Bodhidharma had died.
The Emperor ordered that Bodhidharma's grave be opened, and they found the coffin empty except for one shoe.

Kong Xin's Gallery II

One Shoe, 2008

Within, 2006

Here I Am, 2007

Kong Xin's Gallery

One Heart One Boat

Bodhidharma