The Joy of Fish and Water
Body, rice paper, pigment, water color, ink
120cm*1000cm
Performanced at:
Milan International Film Festival, Italy, 2023
Black and White Space, Beijing, China, 2023
The Joy of Fish and Water is a monumental rice paper work where I integrate performance art with traditional ink painting, using the flux and dissolution of desire as a thread to explore the transient nature of emotional relationships. I construct a dialogue between the “arc aesthetics” of Eastern painting and the “scientific perspective” of the Western Renaissance, while deliberately disrupting pictorial integrity through the physical intervention of color powder—an allegory for the fragility of memory and desire.
The complete image of the initial state, the video documentation of my performative intervention, and the traces left by the peeling color powder together form a trinity of narratives. As the scattered color traces fall to the ground, the audience becomes a “secondary deconstructor” through their participation, echoing the uncontrollable nature of desire and the fluidity of memory.
《鱼水之欢》是一幅融合行为艺术与传统水墨的巨幅宣纸作品，我以情欲的流动与消逝为线索，探讨情感关系的阶段性本质。我在东方绘画的“弧线美学”与西方文艺复兴的“科学透视”之间建立对话，同时以色粉的物理介入刻意破坏画面的完整性，隐喻记忆与欲望的脆弱性。
初始状态的完整画面、我行为介入的影像记录、以及色粉剥落后的残迹，共同构成三位一体的叙事。当色粉的痕迹洒落在地面，观众在参与过程中成为“二次解构者”，呼应情欲的不可控性与记忆的流动性。
I let the permeability of rice paper and the fluidity of water work together to create textures reminiscent of human skin.
Through layered applications of pigment and color powder, I evoke the gradations of desire—from the tension teetering on the edge of eruption to the tenderness of apricot blossoms in spring rain—before they dissolve into blurred residues under the erosion of time. The figures in my work emerge from continuous arcs, resonating with the traditional Chinese aesthetic principle of qiyun shengdong (spirit resonance). Yet, I deliberately disrupt this legacy by introducing color powder: repeated touches fragment the image, while pigment stains linger like the pervasive yet irrepressible traces of desire.
This process, both creation and performance, transforms “destruction” into a philosophical meditation on impermanence.
我让宣纸的渗透性与水的流动性相互作用，塑造出近似肌肤的质感。
通过层层晕染的色粉，我描绘情欲的不同层次——从蓄势待发的张力，到杏花春雨般的缠绵，最终归于时间冲刷后的模糊与褪色。 我的画面人物以连续弧线构成，呼应中国画“气韵生动”的审美理念。然而，我故意用色粉介入以颠覆这一传统：反复的触碰让图像逐渐溃散，而色粉的痕迹如同情欲的残留，顽固且不可逆。
这一过程既是创作，也是行为表演，在破坏之中，我探寻“消逝”背后的哲学凝视。
For fifteen years, I turned away from traditional ink techniques, embracing the raw spontaneity of action painting. I imagined myself as a “fish in water,” moving freely through bold red tonalities and gestural improvisation, challenging the East’s deep-seated obsession with subtlety.
The layering and erasure of color powder serve as dual metaphors: on one hand, buried memories grow more fragmented the more I attempt to retrieve them; on the other, the Western realist pursuit of permanence is dismantled, exposing the fleeting nature of reality and emotion. Ultimately, my work confronts an existential paradox—we embrace desire with fervor, yet in the wake of time, all we are left with is regret.
十五年来，我背离传统水墨，转向行动绘画的激情表达。我想象自己是一条“水中之鱼”，在红色调的涌动与肢体的即兴挥洒中游弋，挑战东方美学对“含蓄”的执念。
色粉的覆盖与剥离构成双重隐喻：一方面，尘封的记忆在追寻中愈发破碎；另一方面，西方写实主义对“永恒”的追求在此被解构，暴露出现实与情感的瞬时性。 最终，我的作品指向一种存在主义的困境——我们热烈拥抱欲望，却只能在时间的侵蚀中徒留遗憾。
