From time to time, artists achieve creative brilliance by merely highlighting an existing situation, leading people to recognize an intriguing presence or hitherto unnoticed gap in their surrounding culture. This is precisely what was so strong about Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping's contribution to the Ripple Across the Water exhibition held in Aoyama this past fall.

To be sure, the entire Ripple Across the Water exhibition is worthy of an award. Organized by the Watari-Um museum and guest-curated by Jan Hoet of the Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst in Ghent, Belgium, the show brought together 46 artists from across the world, some famous, some emerging, to construct site-specific sculptural installations all over Aoyama during the month of September. It was a remarkable undertaking, the more surprising because so much of the work was excellent. But beyond this, the community which hosted it--lending its streets, yards and places of business to "Art" for a month--was unexpectedly enthusiastic and involved. One-hundred-and-eighty people volunteered to assist the project, and an estimated 20,000 viewed the works.

So what was so special about Huang's work in this context? In formal terms, it was a great Buddha fashioned out of strips of bamboo and festooned with tiny chimes, situated within the upper reaches of a stark, concrete water tower which serves a public housing development. Transforming the entire drab development with an unexpected fragility, Huang's Buddha reminded us of the life that goes on behind the walls of the city, and of the tenderness that might still be found behind even the gravest urban mask. The residents of the housing complex were enthralled and considered the work a great gift, expressing hope that it would be allowed to remain permanently. In art-historical terms, Huang achieved a critical detournement of a key pan-Asian cultural icon, stressing the shared roots of his native China and the Japanese society which hosted him, while reminding us that the links which bind the image to our daily life--above all the compassionate ideal--have all but dissolved.

In this case, innovation involves a confrontation with history, a reintegration, recapturing, of something which has been lost. For this we thank Huang.