Solo 個展: Honey Mustard 蜂蜜芥末

2012

Honey Mustard 蜂蜜芥末

The penguins series is about a family of Emperor penguins. The mother is having bipolar behaviors and is doing something strange.
The father and child, nevertheless, accept, accompany and care for her.

Even If You Catch Fish Biscuits
105天的等待
Ink and color on silk
水墨設色絹本
56 X 83 cm, 2011

Female emperor penguins will go out to catch fish after giving birth. The male is responsible for taking care of the baby for three months without eating. After the long wait, mother penguin comes back happily. She shows off her catch though, instead of fish, she has caught many fish biscuits.

Thank You for Your Long Prayers
90天的禱告
Ink and color on silk
水墨設色絹本
53 X 83 cm, 2011

Praying is a way to express care and blessing for someone . In the painting, Mother penguin has been praying for her husband. She is very persistent. However the father and child are too tired to keep up the pose. Some friendly baby penguins, like angels, show support in their action. For the family having member suffered by Bipolar Disorder, it is so warm and comforting to have understanding friends.

Honey, We are Stinky
蜜糖，我們是腥臭的
Ink and color on silk
水墨設色絹本
64 X 98 cm, 2011

Penguins are actually stinky as they eat fish. Mother penguin is trying to remove this smell by bathing in flowers and eating fish-shape chocolate which proves rather useless. It is important to accept the truth and be content of who you are.

We are Picking Trash in Dresses
漫步華爾滋
Ink and color on silk
水墨設色絹本
96 X 63 cm, 2011

Mother penguin loves to dress up when picking trashes. Although this is a rather weird behavior, her husband still accompanies her and without pointing out her strange action. Instead of riding in the stroller, the baby penguin is being trained to walk earlier. "We are Picking up Trash in Dresses" comes from the lyric of a song "Beautiful Mess" by Jason Marc. It is about how to love a girl with bipolar personality. The scene of a couple walking with stroller is taken from the classic movie "Gone with the wind" in which Vivien Leigh played Scarlett. In real life, she suffered from bipolar disorder illness. She was such a charming and a serious actor who fought throughout her life with extreme emotional swings.

The reconciliation and struggle of different polarities, predominately between the two sexes.

Summation
求和
Ink and color on silk
水墨設色絹本
68.5 X 130 cm, 2011

Two zebras are united to form a piano. Each zebra has to be balanced or will fall over. In order to find balance and reconcile differences, both parties must work together with respect.

Equilibrium - The Legend of Lion Dog
天秤－獅子狗的家譜
水墨設色絹本
Ink and color on silk
67 X 123 cm, 2011

The legend of the birth of the Lion Dog (Peking Dog) is about the love between a lion and a small monkey. The lion pleaded for the help of a priest/ fairy. The priest asked if the lion would give up his mighty size and become as small as the monkey. The lion concurs as it loves the monkey. To honor this unconditional love, the offspring of all Lion Dogs will possess of lion’s bravery and monkey’s wittiness.

Till I See You - Swans
遇見黑天鵝
Ink and color on silk
水墨設色絹本
118 X 69 cm, 2011

The Black swan effect teaches us that there is always uncertainty in life and hence to humble ourselves for our limited knowledge. White and black swans are both opposing and interdependent. Two swans are swimming in a turntable lake. To prevent from falling over, they must keep turning the top.

“Before the discovery of Australia, people in the old world were convinced that all swans were white, an unassailable belief as it seemed completely confirmed by empirical evidence. The sighting of the first black swan might have been an interesting surprise for a few ornithologists (and others extremely concerned with the coloring of birds), but that is not where the significance of the story lies. It illustrates a severe limitation to our learning from observations or experience and the fragility of our knowledge. One single observation can invalidate a general statement derived from millennia of confirmatory sightings of millions of white swans. All you need is one single (and, I am told, quite ugly) black bird.”

---The Black Swan: The Impact of Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

White Elephant
白色大象
Ink and color on silk
水墨設色絹本
160 X 104 cm, 2011

In Southeast Asia, owning and keeping a white elephant is considered sacred. However, It is both a blessing and a curse - the cost of maintenance is very high and you cannot put the animal in any hardship or danger.

In this painting, the white elephant is depicted as a bride. Its trunk is holding a black eight ball which denotes blessing (number 8) and curse (black). Being transported by a group of ants and a Blue Poison Dart Frog (鈷藍毒箭蛙), whose poison can kill a thousand men, on its tail, the elephant appears self-content but in fact in a very dangerous position.

System Error
系統錯誤
Ink and color on silk
水墨設色紙本
190 X 60 cm, 2011

A research in Hong Kong conducted with young children asked what skin color of people they think are friendlier. The results were white and yellow. In general, they thought people with darker skin color are less friendly. I am curious of what caused such preconception?

The five baby penguins are metaphors of people from different races and background. They are different in color combinations (furs) and none resembles the emperor penguin. They are depicted as asking, “Could you accept me?” I tried to translate the sentence into different languages in Google translation website. I am not sure, however, whether it is correct or is simply a system error.