Rhenix Shi

MFA IN VISUAL ARTS, YORK UNIVERSITY, FALL 2020

How Calm the Ocean

How Calm the Ocean features Shi’s long-term video project, Dukkha. In Buddhism, suffering is one of the four noble truths that an individual cannot avoid in life. There are eight sufferings: birth, aging, sickness, death, separation of the loved one, denial of one’s desire, the long-lasting and unpleasant, and over-reliance on five aggregates. The first four sufferings are focused on the physicality of the human body (the pain that most people experience); the latter four sufferings focus on the inner pain caused by endless desire and obsession.

The project Dukkha, explores the concept of the types of sufferings that are experienced by all human beings. It consists of eight independent video chapters, and for each chapter, it portrays a specific type of suffering. When interpreting this concept, Shi used many symbols as a metaphor such as the image of a fish, which, in Asian culture, symbolizes a wish, or the colour red, which is used to express desire, and the hair, symbolizing extreme attachment to the materialized world. Shi also received genuine love and compassion from many traditional and religious rituals from Buddhism and Asian culture, such as writing calligraphy, drawing with ink, shaving bald, reciting mantra, and praying. These ritualistic gestures empowered him to form his own spiritual practice.

View the exhibition images below

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Rhenix Shi is a Chinese-born multidisciplinary artist. He received BFA from University of Toronto, and MFA at York University. Shi’s work ranges from drawings, photography, installation, and moving images. Influenced by Buddhism and East Asian philosophy, his works are always meditative and mindful. He explores concepts of impermanence of nature, life cycles, and ephemerality through lens of spirituality.

Website: www.studiorhenix.com/dukkha

Instagram: @rhenixshi