Sixi Education
Understanding the logic of Contemporary Art through Explorations in Myths and Legends
Art Lecture
Event Date
August 24, Sunday, 2025
Guest
Li Mu
Professor of Nanjing University
Event Review
On August 24th, Sixi Museum was honored to invite Professor Li Mu—professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Art, Nanjing University—to deliver an artistic lecture titled Understanding the logic of Contemporary Art through Explorations in Myths and Legends.
Professor Li began his discussion by exploring contemporary artists’ modern interpretations of Shan Hai Jing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas). Those bizarre and fantastical figures have been shrouded in mystery, having transcended thousands of years of history and life experiences. From the perspective of the ancient compilers of Shan Hai Jing, when observing modern architecture and technology, familiar objects like cars and computers would resemble the diverse creatures in the text. They could transform into mythical beasts with flaming wheels or entities that generate mysterious images, appearing elusive.
Next, Professor Li presented numerous classic divine beings and mythical creature. He also invited the audiences to guess the eye location of these seemingly familiar sheep or deer-like creatures, whose eyes are on the back, under the armpit or at the back of the head. Beyond this dislocation technique, Professor analysed more typical methods of monster imagery, such as duplicating features to equip mythical beasts with nine heads, collaging human heads with fish bodies, and shaping divine beings by omitting heads or other organs.
Guided and expanded by Professor Li, the audiences, drawing on the magic and boundless charm of Shan Hai Jing, perceived the extraordinary yet cognizable power of imagination, as well as the importance of encouraging and emphasizing creators' subjective initiative in contemporary art creation.