The Ordinary World series by LYU LIN, the author, was originally started from the universal phenomenon that human beings live both in Being or Existence and in Nihil or futility. This dissertation delves into the relationship between the existence and... The Ordinary World series by LYU LIN, the author, was originally started from the universal phenomenon that human beings live both in Being or Existence and in Nihil or futility. This dissertation delves into the relationship between the existence and nilhi in life through the Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu’s Vijnaptimatrata and Arthur Schopenhauer’s ontology of Will. The two philosophers commonly argue that cognition is the most genuine and direct basis to human beings and that the phenomenal world is strictly subjected to the causality principle. Based on these perspectives, Vasubandhu’s Vijnaptimatrata explains that life is formed by causal conditions, thus lacking essence, but human beings mistake it for the truly existing phenomenon. Schopenhauer’s ontology of Will underlines independence and phenomenal being’s will as noumenon. According to Schopenhauer’s theory, everything in the objective world including human beings is the result of the objectification of will. While Vasubandhu’s Vijnaptimatrata denies the human truth in the phenomenological aspect, Schopenhauer’s ontology of Will denies human freedom in the ontological aspect. The two philosophers nonetheless acknowledge that most of people pivot on their selves in reality based on the hypothesis of the self, even though the futility of life seems more like the essence. Human beings cannot strive against fate, even if they recognize the futility of life. Susanne Langer acknowledges the expressivity of art. At the same time, Langer critiques Benedetto Croce’s expressionist aesthetics which exaggerates an artist’s expression of the self. She emphasizes the transformed meanings of art. She proposes that “Art is the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling.” Under the influence of Susanne Langer, the author created the Ordinary World series more rationally. Roland Barthes’ theory of “writing degree zero” is originated from the logicism of binary opposition in classical literature. In Writing Degree Zero, Barthes advocates the straightforward writing characterized by the absence of the author. This narrative style coincides with the feelings the author aims to express in the narrative of the Ordinary World series. For most people, the coexistence of the existence and nihil in life is a fact they confront, which can never be changed. The author can only express “the feeling without feeling” on this subject. The author tried only to express this fact through the language of painting as objectively as possible. In the Ordinary World series, the author visualized a red Centaurus as a main figure. The author combined the round head that symbolizes the wisdom of humanity and the body of a dog with red hair that symbolizes the primitive drive. The author assigned the Centaurus doing a variety of things in everyday life against natural landscape that symbolizes causality principle and the infinity of the world. By doing it, the author showed the understandings of the relationship between the existence and nihil in life. The neutrality of the narrative of painting in the Ordinary World series is shown in several aspects. Firstly, it is the neutral narrative perspective. In the Ordinary World series, the author tries to objectively construe the existence and nihil in life. The author does not interpret them as a binary opposition, but expresses the objective phenomenon of coexistence. Secondly, it is the neutral narrative language. The author uses the similar language of painting in expressing the different behavior. This similarity of the language of painting is revealed in three aspects. Thirdly, it is the neutral narrative contents. In the series, the author visualized the contingent behaviors in daily life such as queueing, having sex, and having a meal. Through the same method of painting and sculpture, the narrative contents are given the equal positions. As if taking a picture with a camera on the street, the author reveals the neutrality in terms of narrative contents of painting. After the two World Wars, mainstream ideologies were dissolved in the level of the world. Works of art thus are characterized by the neutrality. Strictly speaking, the absolute writing degree zero cannot easily be realized. It is determined by the attribute of the society. The narrative of “degree zero” is more close to a tendency. Many different works with the tendency of degree zero narrative differ widely. Jean Dubuffet, for example, emphasizes abandoning all the existing values, and yearns for the primitiveness at the same time. German postwar artists such as Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, and Georg Baselitz are confronting the destruction of human spiritual faith. Their works reveal a certain tendency of nihilism, and also contain feelings of satire, criticism, and exhaustive denial. The Ordinary World series, although originating from an observation of cultural pluralism in modern society, deals with the problem of futility of life in a philosophical way. In the Ordinary World series, the author focuses on the futility as the essence of life, not the detailed nihilism in specific time and space. The author acknowledges not only the essence of life as futility but also the relative meanings of life. The expression of neutral ideology and neutral feeling thus characterizes the Ordinary World series.
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