Return to the origin no. 2, from the series Return to the Origin

Guan Wei has often looked to the constellations in the sky, recalling their mystical interpretations, interstellar lines of connection and magical creatures. Here, he conjures them again when pointing to the chaotic and exhausting pace of modern life. He asks us to “free our hearts… and return to the origin”; to look to the stars and see in them the potential for “infinite freedom and happiness”.

The motifs on this sculpture have their philosophical origins in Daoism, a philosophy that traces the creation of the world to the Dao – the source of all things. Laozi, a writer and philosopher thought to have lived between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, founded Daoist thought. He believed that all things are fleeting and part of a cycle in which all that exists – from blades of grass to constellations of stars – will eventually return to its origins.