Mocube is honored to present Yuan Yang, a solo exhibition featuring artist Chen Liang. The exhibition will remain on view through January 3, 2027.
On Yuan Yang
“The mountains remain, the waters remain, and the people remain; pairs of mandarin ducks drift upon the water.”
The seemingly spontaneous bixing (比兴, analogical evocation) of xintianyou (信天游, a folk-song tradition) reveals, with astonishing force, the secrets of the human heart!
Two years ago, during the first lunar month, in a cave dwelling in northern Shaanxi, I asked a skilled practitioner of jiaohua (铰花, folk paper-cutting), seated cross-legged on the kang (炕, a heated earthen bed), a question: Why does life seem to be filled everywhere with things that come in pairs?
Paired birds, twin fish, facing butterflies, and intertwined flowers and plants. They appear on window lattices, in wedding customs, in stone carvings of heaven and earth, and in the sacred world of village beliefs, enduring from generation to generation, seemingly without end. When the old understandings of civilization, spoken from the mouths of farmers, encounter new contemplation and questioning of the inner life, the cultural emotion awakened in that instant defies expression.
Sun and moon, yin and yang, black and white, front and back, light and darkness—the joys, sorrows, and longings of human life always seem to appear in pairs. One existence is invariably bound to another. Through encounter, differentiation, reflection, and fusion, they generate new ways of understanding the world. A form of Chinese wisdom rooted in the experience of “coming in pairs” (chengduir, 成对儿) seems capable of extending into the myths, rituals, languages, and practices of writing of humanity at large. What we take for granted as common knowledge is precisely the silence of civilization, an essence lying dormant in the depths of culture. All our pursuits of civilization amount, perhaps, to nothing more than this.
The exhibition unfolds in three parts, following a narrative rhythm. First, “Duifu” (对幅, Paired Scrolls), beginning with the traditions of zhuangchi (装池, the mounting of paintings and calligraphy) in East Asian painting and writing; second, “Butterfly”, exploring symmetry, differentiation, and intertextuality; third, “Yuanyang”, addressing the symbiotic relationships of life. Through writing, painting, paper-cutting, and moving images, a genuine will to live becomes manifest.
In a special collaboration with Chen Jie of Wumusuosō (物木所), we will construct within the exhibition space a wooden installation made by him, housing paper-cuts, stone carvings, embroideries, and various ritual objects characterized by forms of twinning. It will bear the name “Yuanyang Museum of Folk Art” (鸳鸯民艺馆).
The earthy and the old, and new knowledge; the local and the world; solace and mystery; artworks and faith—all are entrusted to yuanyang, this beautiful symbol, this elusive pattern of the human mind.
Chen Liang
October 30, 2026, Zhuantang, Hangzhou
