Binkley Theme for Changsha Sculpture Festival

Each of us participants for the Changsha International Sculpture Arts Festival had to submit two proposals to create for the event and the Organizing Committee chose one.

The theme for the Festival is City Spirit, City Culture, City Creation. I researched some history of Changsha, and found that in the early 1970s, an original text of Tao was discovered in a tomb in the mountains surrounding Changsha. I put these together to form my concept of a male and female nude standing back to back.

In order for us to create new life, we need man and woman. The figures are standing back to back to support each other in the spirit of friendship and harmony and look in opposite directions to the horizon, to a positive future. I, as a Canadian artist, am bringing threads of my country’s culture to China, and in turn am being immersed in the history and culture of Changsha, a very strong emerging city – two cultures coming together in the field of fine art.

Tao is based on Yin Yang, female / male, night / day, soft / hard. The figures represent Yin and Yang and when finished, I would like them placed as they are on the work field of the Festival. The male, Yang is day and faces the morning. The female, Yin is night and faces the evening. As China is among the first countries in the northern hemisphere to greet the day, the male also represents this country that has a deep history. As my native country is amongst the last to bid farewell to the day (and Vancouver amongst the last cities), the female represents Canada.

All these themes are enfolded in my sculpture, and give context to why I proposed it. I have given it the title “Look to the Horizon.”

That the human body is my most favourite subject matter for my art is an added bonus for this experience.