UZENDO was born in 2018 from a deep friendship and an ongoing creative dialogue with my dear friend and brother, Rongjiang Cheng. Together, we discovered a word capable of holding a shared vision, a place where imagination, reflection, and artistic creation could coexist.
Years later, the name continues to remind me that the most meaningful ideas are rarely born in isolation. UZENDO embodies the spirit of collaboration, friendship, and the lifelong search for meaning through art.
Beyond its literal meaning, a zendo is traditionally understood as:
- A place of silence and reflection.
- A space for honest self-observation.
- A refuge from the distractions of the outside world.
- An environment where presence, creativity, and personal transformation are cultivated.
- A place where harmony between mind, body, and spirit is sought.
Applied to my artistic practice, UZENDO becomes something more personal: a creative sanctuary where imagination, memory, identity, and transformation take shape through art.
UZENDO is my own Aleph, a place where memory, desire, beauty, love, vulnerability, and imagination converge. Each work seeks to reveal what we hide behind our masks and the closets we carry within ourselves, transforming silence into presence and human experience into tangible form.
The name can also be read as “You Zendo” your creative sanctuary.
It is a personal fusion of my family name, Zengotita, and the concept of a zendo: a place of contemplation, artistic practice, and spiritual reflection. It represents an invitation for every viewer to enter a space where creativity becomes a path toward self-discovery.
