Michigan Oriental Art Society
Sunday, October 12, 2014
St John Hospital-Oakland Education Center, 27351 Dequindre Rd, Madison Heights
(between 11 Mile and 12 Mile Rds)
Social Time at 1:30 pm, Meeting at 2:00
pm.
Unstable Objects: the Luohan Sculptures of Lingyan Temple and Song Dynasty Viewing Practices
Rebecca Bieberly, Visiting Professor University
Department of Art and Art History, Oakland
Although artworks from the historical
past often appear as stable objects with determined meanings and histories,
they are constantly being re-imagined by the audiences that view them. This
talk considers the variety of viewing practices of audiences in Song dynasty
(960-1279) China through a rare set of 11th century clay Buddhist
sculptures housed in Lingyan temple in Shandong province.
Produced in nearly life-sized
proportions, these sculptures depict
luohan—historio-mythical enlightened monks charged by the historical Buddha Śākyamuni
with the task of maintaining Buddhism here on
earth. Rendered with naturalistic detail, each appears not as a supernatural
being, but as an earthly and “ordinary” cleric. The potential audience of these works and their viewing
practices was diverse: abbots, government officials, poets, painters,
laypeople, and others. All approached naturalistic Buddhist imagery with
different social and religious protocols and various expectations. While some
understood works such as the Lingyan sculptures as religious objects, other
viewers might have considered them as works of art. Not static, the Lingyan
temple sculptures shifted in meaning from viewer to viewer. This instability,
which resists attempts to define these works, continues to the present day as
contemporary audiences participate in the re-imagining of these unique
sculptures.
