Glass Labyrinth of Nine Palaces, at Shan Yuan art museum in Beijing, China. May 27, 2011
Labyrinth One: An Installation and Performance at the Hammer Museum, 1994
The Origin of The Labyrinth
In 1990, a Chinese diagram I found in an old book sparked my interest in the form called the labyrinth. on further research, I discovered the connection between the diagram and the “Lo-Shu” chart of the I Ching, also named the nine palaces.
The Lo-Shu Chart
The “Lo-Shu” chart is a magical and mystical configuration of nine numbers occupying nine spaces.
The Nine Palaces of the Pa-Kua
In the I Ching, Pa-Kua are eight symbols of forces of nature– the Palaces of Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Wind, Water, Fire, Mountain and Lake. The Middle space in this configuration is dedicated to The Palace of the Great Void.
Quoted from Diana Wong’s book “Merging”
The First Draft
The Labyrinth installation in 721 blocks
The architectural rendering of the 3-D Glass Labyrinth
The finished piece the Glass Labyrinth on the rooftop at the ShangYuan art museum in Beijing, China