Heaven over Fire, Fire Over Heaven

Chinese-Australian artist Lindy Lee’s practice is intimately tied to her explorations of the self. The daughter of immigrant parents, she channels into art her quest to come to terms with a lifelong experience of difference; of being neither fully Chinese nor entirely Australian– ‘a false copy*' herself. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Lee has often explored this migrant past, frequently using tinted portraits of her family members in works that capture individual histories of loss and longing. A Zen Buddhist, she draws heavily from Taoist and Buddhist thought, especially her own practice of Zen meditation.

Heaven over Fire (2014) is a circular bronze sculpture made by flinging molten bronze on the floor-a process grounded in the ancient Chinese technique of ‘flung ink painting’ practiced by Zen Buddhist monks who, after a period of meditation, would splash a cup of ink on paper. By rendering this ancient painting technique into a sculptural form, Lee gives permanent form to a fleeting, mystical moment when all of cosmos converges in an act of creation.

Also exhibited are five works created by Lee using a combination of paint, ink and fire on paper. In Buddhist cosmology, fire represents the energy of the universe and is considered one of the five basic elements along with air, water, earth and space. In these paintings, Lee uses the vital force of fire to create patterns that resemble dew drops, constellations of stars or mysterious galaxies swirling in space– evoking the relentless combination of elements from which the world is born.