The question of how to keep tradition alive has been asked the world over. But in China, the impetus to educate the next generation about millennia-old visual languages is of particular importance. Unlike in the West, where artistic merit is often determined by innovation and challenges to precedents, the philosophies of China have more commonly valued the ability to bridge the past and the present—and in essence, to offer viewers a sense of an artwork’s place within a longer history and a larger, eternal cosmic order.

That might seem like a tall order for contemporary times, and it’s even more challenging because of the absence of Chinese traditional aesthetic education in schools. But taking up this mantle with enthusiasm is “SENTIENT BEINGS: An immersive exhibition retelling of oriental aesthetics,” an immersive 10-work exhibition presented by media team Rising-Vision now on view in Shenzhen.

In “Sentient Beings,” viewers can wander through rooms full of dazzling projections, while learning, through imagery, about the three eyes of Chinese philosophy: the divine eye of ancient mythology, which seeks the infinite; the physical eye, which seeks order in the world through folk customs; and the eye of wisdom, which seeks to find the spirit of a culture.

To create these installations, Suci Li, one of the show’s producers, teamed up with the minds at Rising Vision, to look through Rising Vision Museum’s extensive collection of Chinese portraiture for inspiration. Using imagery from these artworks, “Sentient Beings” offers projections and light-and-mirror installations that represent Chinese art history from the Yuan Dynasty to the Republic, touching on Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist figure paintings, family portraits, and more.

“Sentient Beings” is on view now at the Shenzhen Bay Technology Eco Park. See image from the exhibition below.

Rising Vision, Whisper of Dimensions (2019). Courtesy of Rising Vision.

Rising Vision, Whisper of Dimensions (2019). Courtesy of Rising Vision.

Rising Vision, Lost in Faces (2019). Courtesy of Rising Vision.

Rising Vision, Here Is Where We Met (2019). Courtesy of Rising Vision.

Rising Vision, Here Is Where We Met (2019). Courtesy of Rising Vision.

Rising Vision, Here Is Where We Met (2019). Courtesy of Rising Vision.

Rising Vision, Myth Is a Public Dream (2019).Courtesy of Rising Vision.

Rising Vision, Quicksand of Time (2019). Courtesy of Rising Vision.

Rising Vision, Comic Dust (2019). Courtesy of Rising Vision.