Exhibition Date: October 5th (Sat.) – November 17th (Sun.)
Location: Wistaria Tea House, No. 1, Lane 16, Xinsheng South Road Sec. 3, Taipei
Opening Ceremony: October 5th (Sat.) at 14:00


What happens when Western artistic sensibilities encounter a Chinese classical text? What can arise from this cultural fusion? An oeuvre that is at once contemporary and traditional, simultaneously harkening to the past and beckoning to the present. Guillaume Hébert’s artistic interpretation of the Yi Jing offers us a view of the possibilities latent in this cultural synthesis: a symbiosis of tradition and modernity.

The text of Yi Jing seeks to explain the origins of all things and the causes behind their transformation by investigating the link between the living world and the nature. The yin and yang, Yi Jing’s vehicle of divination and representative of Chinese philosophical sensibilities and worldview, focuses on the transformation of things, for one’s state of being is never static: it is a mutable condition. The ancient Chinese frequently consulted the Yi Jing to divine the will of the heavens and based their responses to various situations on the results of each divination.

Guillaume Hébert’s (Fine Arts College of Caen; currently resides in Taipei) artistic treatment of the Yi Jing transposes the duality and continuity of the yin and yang into its digital equivalent: 0 and 1. The pictorial representations of the Yi Jing in Hébert’s oeuvres follow the binary logic of computer programming: each of the sixty-four permutations arises from a manipulation of the binary code. Hébert’s investigation of the theme of transformation leads him to represent the Yi Jing in various artistic genres and media: digital lithographs, music, and sculpture. These oeuvres are further enlivened by Hébert’s play with contrasts (light and dark) and color (primary/secondary colors, complementary/contrasting colors), which echoes the duality and continuity of the Yi Jing. And like a composer who varies the rhythm of his compositions, Hébert manipulates various lines and shapes – in both two dimensions and three dimensions – to express the aesthetic beauty and philosophical richness of the Yi Jing.

Over the years, Wistaria Teahouse has been a point of dialogue between the East and West, constantly searching for a new spirit of humanism. In this vein, Guillaume Hébert’s first exhibition in Taiwan not only signifies Wistaria’s continuing dedication to facilitating intercultural dialogue, but more importantly, demonstrates the limitless possibilities of an East-West synthesis in the artistic realm. We hope that through this dialogue between cultures, this dialogue between the oeuvre and the viewer will enable the audience to engage in both cultural exploration and personal introspection.

We welcome you to join us at the exhibition opening at 14:00 on October 5th, and encourage you to discover what a synthesis of traditional text and digital art can offer to each individual. During the exhibition period, Guillaume Hebert, the artist, will be present every Wednesday at 16:00 and every Saturday at 14:00 to discuss his insights into the Yi Jing with the audience. Feel free to drop by and have a word with Guillaume!