Detail: Contents in Fine Sketches for Teaching
derive from scenes I witnessed in
person.
Capturing ghosts in those spaces and
painterly fixing them on paper is a
constant work over the years.
The ghosts span a wide range, varying
from pottery to porcelain, from seating
to bedding, from farmyard to study and
desk, from bracket set to beam frame.
As well as basket, bucket, pavilion,
porch, tea pot, bowl, dish, jar, flower,
and rockery.
Be it practical or not, for man or for
god, rough or delicate, rare or rotten.
A sense of paleness asserts itself by
virtue of passion piled by civilization
and bone shards from frenzy scenes.
Deeply immersed in the ruins of bleak
village and deserted temple, I am here
to discover fleeting moments from
history of time.
“The Rhyme of Ruins” originates from the
flood I experienced before. By the last
moment of the flood befalling, fowls,
snakes, scorpions and insects all
incredibly have instinctively revealed a
sense of calmness and detachment. The
background sound of “WU WU WU” “O O O”
is simple in form, but conveys different
meanings, which seems to hate as well as
to miss, to weep as well as to talk.
Paused blank is like a dancing dragon,
the lonely man in the small boat is
moved to tears, it is the scene in
Former Fu on Red Cliff. Perpetual
struggle runs through the work, for the
small boat disappeared and reappeared.
The work is made of natural materials,
such as dead branches and dead leaves. I
dubbed the video using a traditional
style of chanting, Xiao Ge, to express
complex emotions of casualness and
discontent. Xiao Ge is very popular in
Wei Jin period, it means expressing
one’s bottom thoughts, without caring
worldly opinions. And here my small boat
“float freely in the sky, not knowing
where to land; it is so tiny in the
grand sky, abandoning secular world for
being immortal in heaven”. In the end,
wind dwindles, fire dies out, phoenix
nirvana, and everything starts anew.