Capital: Waiting for the Naissance of the Dragon, lithograph 133cmx 110cm
When Ming Emperor Zhudi decided to build a monument for his father, he tried to make the largest stele in the world. The rocks at Mount Yangshan , in the suburb of Nanjing City , were divided into three parts as the material for this stele. But it was impossible to move the rocks till this day. The monument was never completed.
Here in the installation, the skeletons of 11 out of 12 animals (excluding the dragon) - in the order of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals - are surrounding the huge stone. The dragon is believed to be born in this stele like stone, but not yet.
City of Failure , lithograph 133cmx 110cm
The concept of this room comes from the so-called Square Castle in the Ming Dynasty imperiatorial tomb in Nanjing City . This was regarded as the City Gate of the fanciful underground Forbidden City . In the original historical site, a stone tortoise supports a huge stele in the centre of the room and Four Gates surrounding it.
I replace the stone tortoise base with the four walls, so the open door becomes a stele and the ambient air becomes the stone wall.
One of the flagstones in this room is embossed with dimple images illustrating a bouncing trace of a stone.
Don't Worry Lake , lithograph 133cmx 110cm
'Mo Chou' means Don't worry', but it is also the name of a lake in Nanjing City . A girl who lived in Qi Dynasty 1700 years ago was also named Mo Chou. Coming from a poor family, she sells herself for her father's funeral, and marries someone in Nanjing . She commits suicide in this lake since her unhappy life.
Here in the installation, the Chinese scholar rock is cut as a geometric abstract sculpture put in the centre of the space. All the cut-off pieces are installed on the wall, and there is a path for blind people along the wall. The blind can follow this path touching the surface of the rocks on the wall. At the same time, a waterfall is falling from the ceiling and hits the sculpture making a big sound. After many years, the sculpture becomes another Chinese scholar rock.
Propagator in the Darkness, lithograph 133cmx 110cm
A big copper bell sits on the ground, with a performance artist inside the bell. He is hoarsely shouting out all kinds of revolutionary slogans, but people outside cannot hear him. They can only see his inversed image through the screen of a
X-ray scanning machine.
All the Bigness have their Scars, lithograph 133cmx 110cm
2000 big iron locks are locked together in a long catenated shape. Each lock is equal in weight to the avoirdupois of an adult. The lock hole on each lock is replaced with the embossed image of a whirlpool.
Whinstone lithograph 133cmx 110cm
Xuan Wu', is name of a lake in Nanjing city which also means whinstone. In Chinese mythology, Xuan Wu is also the offspring of a tortoise and snake, the suppressive animal of the North.
Here in the installation, a lot of books are piled as the section plane of the crater, with many springs in between, creating tensions in different directions.
Ataractic of Zhuang Zi, lithograph 133cmx 110cm
Zhuang Zi, the famous scholar of Taoism in Ancient China, once dreamt about himself transfigured as a butterfly. But when he woke up, he wondered if maybe, actually there was a butterfly dreaming now, and it was dreaming about itself transfigured as somebody called Zhuang Zi.
Make a big transparent glass calabash, 2.5m in diameter and about 4m long. Replace the entrance of this calabash with a stainless steel injector. Put some butterflies inside the glass calabash, which can breathe through the injector.
Winter Solstice, lithograph 133cmx 110cm
A group of copper crane sculptures are under a big bronze bell. There are two small holes which are accurately designed according to the astronomic order. At noontide during the Winter Solstice every year, the sunlight passes through these holes vertically, and at the same time hitting the light spot on one of the cranes head activating the photoconductive switch which will make the bell toll.
The Draft of Revolution, lithograph 133cmx 110cm
The image of the sculptures is based on the revolutionary sculpture from the Nanjing Yangzi River Bridge which are derived from the Ming Dynasty Imperiatorial Tomb in Nanjing City. However only some details of the original works are represented here, so they seem like telic images, just shaped from rough stones. Each of the stones is hollow with small slot openings like in a piggybank.
Home is Still There, lithograph 133cmx 110cm
A set of furniture consisting of table and chairs crafted in the Ming Dynasty are floating in a pool of oil and held by chains and anchor that keep the furniture in suspension. The chains and anchor cannot be seen from the surface of the oil pool. The oil is moved by a waterpump underneath, which makes a big slow turning whirlpool.
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