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When Dinosaurs Met Buddha • • •
Flaring New Ideas on Bronze

If you think the ivory of long-haired mammoth last year was very spectacular, then this (2016) year will not be disappointing. "The protagonist was mammoth last year; this year the protagonist is the Dinosaur. Last year's large fossil totemic bronze are considered medium or small sizes this year." said Tung Sheng-Ho, who is in charge of setting up the exhibition for the Art Revolution Taipei (ART).

A.R.T. this year, still to be held in the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 3, is to take place from April 22 to 25. Up to 3000 pieces of artwork by 315 artists from 47 countries around the world are to be exhibited, with the focus on three-dimensional sculptures.

The largest piece of fossil is that of mosasaurs, not the whole piece but the skull of a mosasaurs. How big is that? Excluding the bronze, the skull alone measures 206 cm long, 168 cm wide. "When being moved into the elevator, the distance from the top to the ceiling of elevator is less than 5 cm." Tung explained that it was very difficult to move it into the elevator, and it took expertise to do the moving which was done by slow dragging with thick quilt underlying at the bottom.

Unearthed in Morocco it was originally a pile of scattered bones, which most people simply do not see what kind of bones that could be. The experts cleaned and laid out the bones on a board, not in the way of a three-dimensional skull, rather, like a flatten slice of the skull. The yellowish soil on the board is the soil found in the surrounding of the fossils, and is retained as much as possible to its original condition.

For those who have seen “Jurassic Park" will think the mosasaur no stranger," Narrator Liu Feiwen, an Academia Sinica researcher, said: "In the end, two dragons were fighting, one of them fell into the water, and was beaten by a monster springing up from the water. That monster was the mosasaur. Mosasaurs were active in the Cretaceous, known as the"Ruler of the Deep. "

The unearthed complete fossils of large size mosasaurs are not a large number. At the present, only one piece is collected in the National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung, Taiwan.

How can such a big object be combined with sculpture to become an artwork? Artist Lee Sun Don who is also the Art Director of ART, decided to embrace mosasaurs with Buddha hands, symbolizing that even such fierce beasts are also taken good care of by Buddha.

A problem came up. The Buddha hands can hold up the mammoth's ivory, but will not easily support the behemoth mosasaurs. Creativity is the key in solving a problem. So the Chinese moires were added to the fossil bronze. Tung Sheng-Ho said, "The added moires add a lot of changes. Fossils, Buddha hands, Totems, plus moires, the challenge is how to turn these four into a perfect match."

This work of the mosasaur's skull fossil was named "The World in Hand / Bestowing Fearlessness", which, until the cutoff time of publishing, has not been completed, and only the sketch can be obtained.

There is another fossil of pistosaurus, found in coiled posture, which is quite artistry in the fossil itself. From the neck, spine, tail and even to each of the abdominal ribs it are very complete. ART Marketing director Mei-Ting Liu said that the pistosaurus unearthed is very rare, and the complete piece is even rarer. This piece is named "The World in Hand / Dragon King of the World."

Lee Sun-Don called this piece of pistosaurus "Dragon Bead Stored Within," said Liu Meiting, that there is something inside the dragon's abdomen, which is still unclear what it is up to this point. It is not clear yet whether it is something that was pressed by the force outside to get into this pistosaurus's abdomen, or it is something that was already there.

Pistosaurus lived in the Triassic, being a land animal that turned into sea animal in the early stage of life. Its long neck and flippers have been identified by scholars as two characteristics of being ancestors of plesiosaur.

This year appeared again the bronze of color spot ammonites fossils which are bigger than those of last year, Tung Sheng-Ho said that all the color spot ammonites of last year were sold out. This year the Canadian fossil preparation group let Professor Lee have the priority, "let us choose first." We get to choose all the great ones.

Ma Sing Ling trio also challenges the three-dimensional works this year. Wang Singway, said: "We have the lots first, then we have the creative ideas." When Mrs. Thatcher of Britain visited China, someone gave her a set of agate Chinese musical instruments as a gift. The lot in auction is this group of instruments, a total of 20 pieces. We have designed a variety of positions of Mrs. Thatcher, combined with musical instruments.

The ART committee saw the paintings and nodded. As soon as the Art Director heard of the pricing, we were scolded. "We did not include the auction price, but still price at $ 4,800 per square inch." Wang Singway revealed in the pre-show. Two pieces have been hanging out at the pre-show, too late to change the pricing.

Peter H. Harskamp is a Dutch artist, whose big blocky geometric design depicts humans and animals. His sculpture and paintings already have stable fans in Taiwan. His works were almost all sold out in previous VIP nights. He is scheduled to personally come to Taiwan this year.

Tung Sheng-Ho said that the committee has invited him to come to Taiwan a few years ago but he could not bear to leave his old dog. His dog passed away, so this year he can come. In general, the sculpture can be touched, can be felt. Peter's sculptures are close to people in particular, making people want to touch them.

Stone has a spirit ‧‧‧ the story of an eminent monks of a generation

Eight years later, Moon series appears again. One of the pieces was named by the Artist Lee Sun-Don "Stone, the spiritual of the spiritual," as he tells the story of an eminent monk of a generation on his canvas, depicting the scene of “Zhudao Sheng was preaching, stubborrn stones nodded".

In 2008 Lee Sun-Don, "Moon Series / Enlightenment through Contemplating upon the Moon" won five international awards. In 2016 the Moon Series appears again. The moon is still big and round, coupled with the blue that best complimenting the bright moonlight and the totem. The new series of totem obviously makes a breakpoints in becoming three-dimensional.

Lee Sun-Don said that when painting "Stone, the Spiritual of the Spiritual", the feeling was sorrowful. "In those days my teacher the second Patriarch Yuan-Dao Bodhisattva said that once you know what is the ultimate truth of the universe, you raise your hand to vote yes, even if the world's 55 million people (then the world's population was 5.5 billion) vote no, you can not put your hand down." Such kind of insistence was done by Zhu Dao-Sheng. Lee Sun-Don is also the abbot of the YuanDao GuanYin Temple.

Lee Sun-Don went on to tell the story about Zhu Dao-Sheng. Zhudao Sheng was very smart. When he was seven years old, his father took him to listen to a Buddhist Master stating Buddhist sutras. After listening, he completely understand. He asked his father to allow him to be a monk and his father agreed on the spot. From that moment on Zhudao Sheng never returned home.

His master was from Tianzhu (now India), so he used the surname "Zhu," and was named Dao-Sheng. At the age of 15, he was already proficient in the Sanzo twelve classics and began preaching the Buddhist doctrines. There was no one in his time that can argue with him about the Buddhist doctrines. In the year when he was 23, he decided to begin a secluded meditation. At the age of 32, he came out with a theory. He said: "An Icchantika person can also become a Buddha." Because of speaking these words, he was attacked and excluded by all the monks of the whole world.

An means one, anyone. The Icchantika person means all beings in the earthly world. Any single being in our earthly world has the opportunity to become a Buddha.

This happened two or three hundred years before Master Tamo came to China. About three hundred years later, when Master Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty went to India to take back the Sutras of Wisdom Section, the entire Great Nirvana Sutra was then transmitted to China.

1, 700 years ago, the eminent monk of his time, the highly-achieved monk unparalleled in the world, because of this statement he made, was excluded from the temple. Not having the status as a monk, he could not be a mendicant monk, could not return to secular life so that he could be a beggar. According to the emperor's law at that time, no one in the whole world was allowed to give him food, and he could only go to the woods, to the forest, picking the fruit, looking for something to eat every day like a wild dog.

Eight years went by. He was about to starve to death. In the wilderness, with his last moments in life, Zhu Dao-Sheng began to preach the Buddhist doctrines. Facing the stones all over mountains and valleys, he said: I believe this is the meaning of Sakyamuni Buddha. I believe his statement of all beings having the Buddha nature must include any person, any situation, anything, including you. . . He preached all day and all night, believing that he was right, till all the stones in the mountains nodded.

Ten years later, the Sanskrit version of the first section of the Great Nirvana Sutra was transmitted to China. Once translated, the Sutra reads:
The eternal bliss and universal purity. All beings can become a Buddha, regardless of being oviparous, viviparous, metaplasia. Everyone can become a Buddha. The Great Nirvana Sutra actually says exactly the same word. Zhu Dao-Sheng rose back to his original standing. People welcomed him back and he once again became the most authoritative Buddhist Master of the nation.

Artistic painted car becomes the 3D canvas

China Motor cooperated with Taiwanese artist Luna Chen, turning the lively, joyful, stylish COLT PLUS into a three-dimensional canvas. The artistic painted car will be on display at the Art Revolution Taipei.

Will the road in Taiwan look very colorful in the future? Will there be so many artistic painted cars running on the road one after another? The General Manager of China Motor Chen Zhao-Wen said that unless the Motor Vehicle Office updates rules of supervision; otherwise, the colorful painted cars will run into difficulty in registering the color of the car and thus will be unable to pass inspection.

At the time of registration and in every five years after that, the car needs to be inspected. Color is one of the items that needs to be inspected. Chen Zhao-Wen said that he already asked the Motor Vehicle Office, and learned that as the painted car is painted with too many colors, the Motor Vehicle Office thinks it is unrecognizable and therefore the painted car can not be registered. The cars now running on the road are monochrome, and are also registered as monochromatic.

Will the painted car really not be able to get on the road? Chen Zhao-Wen said that unless someone is willing to buy a car in monochrome, and then after passing the inspection and completing the registration, he will then have the car re-painted. Five years later, when the car is to be inspected, he then scrape the colorful paints and make it monochrome, and then after the inspection he will have the car re-painted.

"However this is a very pricy way." Chen Zhao-Wen explained that the artistic painting must be done by someone who can paint. Painting on a car will cost four or five hundred thousand dollars. After the painting is done, it is not so easy to scrape it off, and that is why we said that the painting needs to be scraped off to get the car re-painted before inspection.

The artistic painted car by China Motor in collaboration with Luna Chen is indeed full of color, which is a characteristic of Luna Chen works. Luna Chen, 26, was selected by the "Master of Art International 2014 " in UK. She faces the world with her childlike curiosity, and her works looks warm and playful, emitting abundant vitality.

2016/04/11 Economic Daily News @http://udn.com/

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