Written language can only point out what the universe allows us to imagine and see. Emptiness is Form leads us to see the presence in between. It is empty, and it is form. What resonates outward echoes the meanings found within. It leads us to wonder what is being revealed when it is emptied. The view of Emptiness is strange to our minds, but what is even more surprising is the fact that it is so ordinary.
Emptiness does not imply “non-existence”, but rather it brings us outside of “presence”. And then we can participate in the presence with all our five senses.
The exhibition of Emptiness is Form points out the fact that we are incessantly positioned in between images and reality. What is real and what is illusion? Alice Kok is interested in this question, and she uses the images of things to replace their actual presence.
Alice also stresses the impermanence of everything, including materials. She questions the value and the appearance of art forms. In the series of works No Buddha and No Fish, she puts photos inside water. By so doing the works are actually being “destroyed”, thus revealing the impermanence of matter. The works are “dying” in front of our eyes as if they were alive. While these pictures are dissolving they are being “sold” at the same time, so when we buy this kind of artwork, we do not buy only the photo, but the whole process and the concept of the work.
Her piece No Mind is a specially made pyramid structure, the four sides angled at 51°51’, just like those in a pyramid. The pyramid is placed in the center of the exhibition, and visitors can enter and sit and meditate within. Inside the structure, the classic Buddhist scripture of “Heart Sutra” is placed. The text is a description of the nature of the mind.
Alice likes to dwell on the ambiguity of different states, in between languages, in between cultures, in between matters, in between people… She loves the borderless land in between borders. The works shown in the exhibition are also built in between Emptiness and Form. She is the two extremities of the twin, Buddha is in between.
Emptiness is Form – Works by Alice Kok
2018.5.26 – 2018.6.28
Opening hours:11:00 – 19:00 from Tuesdays to Sundays
(Closed on Mondays and Public Holidays)
Address: 1th Floor, Art Garden, Avenida Dr. Rodrigo
Rodrigues N. 265, Macau
