Lily Yeh

I am an artist who works with many different media and in different disciplines - sculpture, painting, photography, fiber, theater and ritual celebration. Because I create gardens and parks with sculptural forms, people call me a sculptor, but I am a sculptor of a unique kind. I do not have a studio with expensive equipment. Often I use donated or recycled materials. My work is community-based, site-specific and process-oriented. Neighborhood residents of the place I work are my helpers. Many of them are children.

I sculpt space more than form. I make images and shapes to create a space that evokes the presence of a particular place which the Chinese describe as the "dustless world." It is a place of pristine beauty, beyond the pollution of human passion, desire and attachment. It is tranquil and eternal. In each of my new works, I try to recreate this place in which one can relax, reflect, reconnect and recenter.

I often feel that what I am creating is a new art form that has yet to be defined. This has been called "social sculpture" by some art writers. I make art not only to reflect the social condition of the community I am working with, but also to make real contact with it emotionally and spiritually.