By Chen Hsin We have always looked heavenwards for the pursuit of meaning, and through the attempts to comprehend astrology, deities and celestial realms are constructed, with the state of awareness continuously expanding with imaginations between the earthly and the divine. In Buddhist scriptures, Devas, or mortal angels, are described as beings that enjoy longevity and are bestowed with might powers, which could magically create luxurious garments and fancy feasts with their minds. However, such angelic beings are not all knowing nor could they live eternally, because they, too, are not immune to decadent temptations. When the five signs of decline are showing, it is a preamble that an angel is about to fall down to Earth, and the signs are:
Five signs of decline displayed by heavenly beings when their lives are about to end are: their clothes become soiled; the flowers on their heads wither; their bodies become dirty with foul odors; they sweat under the armpits; and they do not feel happy, wherever they may be.” At last, not everything is eternal even in heaven. Why are signs of decline always first appear on the flesh? What is temptation like up there? Where does sin originate from? Is this truly a mortal world filled with vanity? For a heavenly being to become mortal again, it is a process where the soul is once again trapped inside the human flesh. This is mentioned in historian Paul Ricoeur’s The Symbolism of Evil: The soul is divine, and the flesh is mortal. The narrative of myth originates from how god’s
soul” became human…Man is the forgotten being derived from this difference, and myth is the narration of how that happened. We always tend to forget the characteristic differences between the soul and the body, and thus we are confounded by this seemingly progressing yet tangibly nonexistent external realm. Yukio Mishima’s final novel, The Decay of the Angel, contains the author’s observations of different presumptuousness. In accordance to this theme, Chen Chien-Pei,Wu Tien-Chang,Kuo Wei-Kuo,Su Meng-Hung,Chen Ching-Yuan,Yen Yu-Ting, Huang Hai-Hsin ,Huang Ko-Wei, Joyce Ho,Chiu Chien-Jen,Reding Ho,Kao Ya-Ting,Hsu Chang-Yu, the thirteen contributing artists of this exhibition have used installations, videos, and paintings to convey the different entrapments formed by mankind’s lust, youth, flesh, love, mission… Thus, the process of awareness, knowledge, and enlightenment is initiated, with new lives unified under the chaos. Whether through literary or visual creations, while interpreting the world, these artists are also in turn expressing themselves. Through explaining the sanctity of the world, one’s own sanctity is also explored.