Feast: MFA Thesis - Sculpture

Abstract

I am exploring how humans balance positive desire and the avariciousness in our everyday lives. My work reveals the excess desire that will lead to human extinction. My inspiration begins with a famous ancient Chinese evil creature called Tao Tie. It is derived from Shan Hai Jing. The story depicts a mythological landscape from which Tao Tie emerges. Tao tie is depicted in many ways, but is always the image of greed. Nowadays, the Tao Tie image represents greediness and glutony. In Buddhism, desire is neither positive nor negative, but is understood as balance. Nothing remains positive when people don’t do things in moderation. In my work, I want to explore the precarious line between greed and healthy desire. In the book “Shan Hai Jing”, the Tao Tie, who was especially greedy for food, ended up eating its own body. In my work, the consequence of Tao Tie symbolizes the prediction of human greed. I utilized paper clay to create a three-dimensional figurative sculpture of Tao Tie as one part of my installation. This material has become a medium for me to describe the myth from history in my work. Tao Tie in Chinese contemporary culture not only means a monster, but also means a dinner which has all kinds of food. I combined the traditional sculpture of Tao Tie with an interactive component. The viewer is invited to sit at the table, hovered over by Tao Tie, and peer into a large bowl which contains a video. In the video I represent people “eating” all kinds of different unbalanced desires such as money, love, food, power, beauty, and health. I use the activity of eating material goods to express the subject of greed in my project. My installation symbolizes humans’ avaricious nature, which is destroying us.