Although the wind

blows terribly here,

the moonlight also leaks

between the roof planks

of this ruined house.

The moon in Japanese poetry is always the moon; often it is also the image of Buddhist awakening. This poem reminds that if a house is walled so tightly that it lets in no wind or rain, if a life is walled so tightly that it lets in no pain, grief, anger, or longing, it will also be closed to the entrance of what is most wanted.

–Jane Hirshfield

 Li Binyuan (1985, China) graduated from his studies of sculpture in 2011 at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he now lives and works. Binyuan belongs to the so-called ‘new generation’ of Chinese artists, whose work draws upon the codes and techniques of the experimental Chinese art scene of the 1980s and ’90s. His performances explore China’s changing socioeconomic landscape.