You Won't Find Any Phone Numbers in This Art

Long-Bin Chen is an artist that uses old phonebooks, newspapers, magazines and other discarded material in order to create his art. 

Twisted Angel - done with books and wire

Reading Room, phonebooks and plywood

Long-Bin Chen was born in Taiwan and studied in New York in the 90’s, and currently resides back in Taiwan. Converging Chinese and American cultures is the central theme to his work as well as consumerism. He also wants to emphasize how society is placing less value on books and more on emerging technologies. 

"Guan Ying Buddha, Need a Ride?"

His sculptures have an ancient look to them, and he creates many Buddha heads from phonebooks. For an example of what he is trying to show, the Buddha heads are designed as a symbolic container holding the names of all the people in the books, bringing them under Buddha’s care. 

Buddha DNA

He skillfully transforms old books into interesting works of art and looking at these from a distance, one would never know what they were made of. They look more to me like a sculpture made out of wood or marble. 

Created using New York phone books

What do you think of this artist's work? Do you think he gets his meaning across? Does looking at his sculptures remind you that you should turn off the television and open a book instead? 

Check out more of Long Bin Chen's sculptures at the Frederieke Taylor Gallery.