Journey of a yellow man No.2 - lee wen 李文

“International Sculpture Symposium”,
Gulbarga, Karnataka, India
‑ December 1992

                     I was taking part in an international sculpture symposium with participants from Japan, India, Ireland, Germany and USA. We were carving stones on a farm about 2 miles outside the city. Communal riots had started in Ayodhya on Dec. 6 disrupting the peaceful tranquility we found working in the Indian countryside. There was cur‑few in the city and our daily visitors stopped coming to see us. We became isolated and we could hear the cries and roars of rioting in the city. We continued working dilligently on our carving of stones but it made me wonder about the usefulness of making sculpture. I was reminded about how Plato banished artists from his ideal stated in "The Republic".
                      The riots subsided and curfew was lifted and we began to see visitors again. Following discussions with participants and visitors, I decided to do a performance on Christmas Day, responding to the surrounding land and social environment.
                      I started the performance painted once again as the yellow man and improvised with long red chains. The chains got entangled in it and when I held them up they seemed to form the shape of a crucifix. I placed them on the ground in front of our camp's gateway and anointed them with some blue pigments. I proceeded to make a fire out of dried sunflower stalks placing them in the shape of a cross. I then laid myself 'in front of it stretched out like a crucifix and stayed there till the fire died out, Getting up I went over to feed a horse with wheat stalks. I had paid the "thangka"(horse‑chariot) man to give his‑ horse a day off as a show of sympathy for our animal friends. After that I went round to the back of our sleeping quarters where there were some wheat fields.1 responded to the space, running, walking crawling and pacing across the files and rows of growing wheat on the fields. I then picked up two large coconut leaves doing a dance the field and waiting for the sun to set. Just before sunset proceeded to walk on a ‑ rope bridge which I had prepared between two coconut trees. The bridge was located 'in such a way that when I walked on them I gave the impression that I was walking above the fields and across the sunset.
                      Perhaps it was the beautiful sunset that really inspired me. We watched the sunset almost every evening, stopping to carve as night falls. The performance ended with the making of another fire using dried sunflower stalks in the corner of the work-site and then covering it with slabs of stone.