This Flickr site is dedicated to the Chinese artist, Wang Lang. His works are all about inspiring the imagination of the viewer whilst shattering their perception of reality, or rather, shattering the very concept of "reality" itself. In this sense, the nature of his work is an organic extension of his life and his beliefs as a Buddhist practitioner.

For a more detailed description of his digital art series, please read his own explanation which I have translated from the Chinese below.

Chris Harry

(Curator)

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about his works.

You may contact me through my flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/dcharry/

or via e-mail: dchristopherharry@gmail.com

On the Genesis of the Series entitled “Illusional Reality and Dependent Origination”

(By Wang Lang)

Translated by Chris Harry

In 2007, I began to focus more deeply upon the most basic element of visual images – ‘pixels’. Our era of electronic imagery allows the principle of ‘pixels’ to become more explicit: all images are constructed from ‘pixels’ and these ‘pixels’ are actually infinitely divisible. I noted their ‘virtuality’ as the most basic constituent element of images. For example, the surface ‘pixels’ of a young miner’s portrait can be in the form of various images of scattered coins and paper currency symbolising poverty and survival. A portrait of ‘Lei Feng’, who was held up as a social role model in China during the 1950’s and 1960’s, alternatively may be composed of innumerable photos of the covers of ‘VISION’, a model magazine for leading trends in fashion, so as to juxtapose the value orientations of two different eras and contexts within the same two-dimensional picture - entering into a wholly new quadrant resulting from the disintegration of time and space. In fact, it possesses an utter ‘virtuality’. A seemingly ‘real’ image can be made up of any ‘atoms’, which can then be further subdivided divided ad infinitum. The relative aspect of the superficial form of objects and their intrinsic nature is vividly revealed within my works. This is somewhat akin to the concept of ‘Paramanu’ in Buddhism, ‘Paramanu’ is an early Buddhist and ancient Indian epistemological concept created to help people understand material reality, analogous to the ancient Greek concept of the ‘atom’. Buddhism considers there is no distinction between the essence of ‘Paramanu’ (translator’s note: the most elemental and indivisible constituents of phenomenal existence) and the ‘whole’ (of existence), just as no separation exists between enlightened and sentient beings; they are neither one nor distinct, originally they are clean and pure. Such terms are used in order to avail the confused of understanding what is originally true, these so-called mental proliferations of our restless minds (papañca) are simply ‘prajñapti’ (translator’s note: a fictitious construction unrelated to ultimate reality). Sutras and Shastras (sacred treatises) of the Dharmalaksana (mere-consciousness) sect of Buddhism have already outlined in detail the ‘empty’ nature of ‘Paramanu’, exhorting us not to cling to outward appearances.

The spread of technology has now led to our lives becoming more and more deeply influenced by the medium of ‘communication’. Yet in this ‘civilised’ world, whereby all manner of information leaves us dazzled and bewildered, what then are ‘false appearances’ or ‘illusions’? What is ‘truth’ or ‘dharmata’ (ultimate reality)? Is what we see with our eyes ‘real’? How can we cultivate the vision of wisdom? This is a conundrum for all of us. Our lives are engulfed by media, the Internet, propaganda, advertising and a vast array of artistic ‘creativity’. When we open our eyes or shut our eyes, what can we ‘see’? Aside from floating along the tempestuous, surging waves in this stream of impermanence, what else can we do?

In many of my works, I have expended a great deal of energy collecting commonly seen graphic elements from all around us that reflect life in the lowest strata of society; compiling and categorising these ubiquitous ‘key words’. I then take these elements, often regarded as unworthy of display - or to which we turn a blind eye as overly-familiar - and make them into the ‘pixels’ of what are usually the most representative of images, yet in this present-day ‘golden age’ these elements can seem most intriguing.

Most of the works in this series ‘Illusional reality and Dependent Origination’ are portraits. The series title represents one facet of a core world view of Buddhist doctrine, namely “the emptiness of dependent origination”. ‘Dependent origination’ (pratītya samutpāda) refers to the idea that nothing exists independently; everything is temporary and relies upon various factors created by other things that combine and manifest as a given phenomenon. Within the plane of phenomenal existence, all things are intertwined within an inconceivable karmic (cause and effect) connection which undergo constant transformation. All things within phenomenal existence are as clouds and fog, fading in and out of material existence (what in Buddhism is referred to as Prakritri or self-nature). I often use a sentence from the Diamond Sutra to describe the core concept behind my works: “All that is perceived is illusive and unreal”. However, at the same time, I also emphasise that my works must reveal a humanistic flavour. This is also based on my own deep experience and realisation of ‘Buddhism in the human realm’ or to use a more concrete expression I quite like – ‘Awareness through humanity’.