| The contemporary aspect of Buddhist art will be represented by an installation by Toronto-based artist Alex Yeung. Yeung, an award-winning ceramist, has created an installation titled The Compassionate One which include 1,000 life-sized hands in homage to Kuan-yin. Known by various names - Avalokiteshvara (India), Chenresi (Tibet), or Kuan-yin (China), and Kwannon (Japan) - this bodhisattva is one of the most important of the Mahayana tradition. As the avatar of limitless compassion, Kuan-yin is an appropriate ambisexual deity for a gay man born in China and living a ‘new life’ in Canada.
Customarily, the legion of arms is seen as apotropaic, to indicate the capacity to work for the welfare of all sentient beings in a manner corresponding to any situation. The arms protect, guide, receive supplications, and provide blessings. The power of this installation will come as much from the number, from the expressive multiplicity of similar forms, as from the unique, individually expressive parts. Each hand will carry a symbolic attribute or signify a mudra of spiritual disposition.
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