I used to be in the mandala-making trade. Personally, it felt like a
spiritual  practice; however, looking at the mandalas alone, there
were people who found my works too geometric, and there were some who
found them too religious. Prior to that, I had photographed flowers,
as I grew up in Hualien - a city of flowers. Later, at a Zen class, I
thought of this famous story in Zen Buddhism: the Flower Sermon. In
the sermon, Buddha picked up a flower and smiled to himself, quietly
without a word. How did a flower make Buddha smile? Why a flower and
not something else? What did Buddha see in the flower?


It was then I realized that each flower is itself a Mandala of the
physical world; every being can sense, see, and envision a “personal
universe” in a flower. The flowers of our world are corporeal, yet are
also spiritual emblems to us.


Thus I went back to making floral art again, adopting a method that is
slightly more complex than the one before; photography first, followed
up with digital post production. After printing, the works are
enhanced with ink pens for the outline and colouring. The result is
again another cross-medium affair - something I have always been
partial to; the finished works look all like photographs and prints at
once, with some semblance to ink-wash painting.


These works are a new generation of mandalas to me: they are both
corporeal instruments and spiritual symbols. Many a time when I lay my
eyes on these works, I cannot help but smile; is there Zen in them?

陳克華/Chen Ke-hua

曾經從事曼陀羅（mandala)的創作好一陣子。就個人而言，好像在靈性的道路上修行，但就作品而言，有人覺得太幾何，有些人又覺得太宗教性。
而之前我拍花，因為從小在花蓮老家長大，就是個「花花世界」。之後在一次禪課，想起禪宗一個著名的典故，佛陀拈花微笑，默然不語，教外別傳。

佛陀為何拈花微笑？為什麼手裡是花而不是別的？佛陀在花裡頭看到了什麼而微笑？

才醒悟原來每一朵花，都是現實世界裡的一個「曼陀羅」，每一個眾生都可以在花裡頭察覺，觀想，投射出一個「自性宇宙」來。
花於這個世界，於人類的心靈，既是實體，又是象徵因此我又回到花的創作，採取了一個較之前稍微複雜的方式（也是逐漸摸索出的方式）---先拍攝，
然後在電腦裡後製，輸出後再以水墨色筆勾勒線條，上色。結果又是我一貫喜好「跨界」的呈現，完成的作品又像攝影，又像版畫，又幾分神似水墨。

而這些作品於我，便是新一代的「曼陀羅」---既是人間器物，又是精神象徵。幾次凝顧作品，臉上不覺泛出微笑---是作品帶有一些禪味？

就請你親身來鑑賞一番罷！

外星曼陀羅---2016陳克華曼陀羅展

 時間：2016年7月5日至31日

 地點：台北市麗水街13巷7號M畫廊

 陳克華／江飛雋