ScholarWorks@UNO

I Ching: Wounding Light

Based on the Chinese classic “I Ching,” specifically the Hexagram 36 section, "Wounding Light: Hexagram 36" is an appropriation of the section's described strategy to hide one’s abilities from others. The image of light, yang, is hiding behind the dominate yin’s darkness. This classic text is a meditation on the consistency of change. Therefore, I chose to include images of the 5th century BC Western Zhou’s bronze Spade Money, or “bu,” in the four corners of the square. These spades are in a molten state and giving way to the modern Chinese coin now used in I Ching divination. This coin is itself showing decomposition and the visual effects of change. I used an encaustic style of painting for "Wounding Light: Hexagram 36" because it’s first known use coincides with the time frame of the “I Ching’s” creation in 5th century BC. “Encaustic” means to burn in and thematically ties into the idea of “Ming I,” the Chinese title for Hexagram 36. “Ming I” roughly translates as a light source hiding, being injured, or eclipsed. Within my title, I endowed the light with purposeful duality. “Wounding Light” can be translated as both light's ability to receive injury and to inflict it. Once wax and pigment are mixed and painted onto panel, they must be torched with fire into place. This process causes the painting to move as it melts and one must adapt to its unpredictable ebbs and flow in order to create success.