WH: You have taken bodies of flesh and blood and made them transparent, like crystallized water. This makes me think of in Dream of the Red Chamber, when Jia Baoyu says: “Men are made from the earth, women are made from water.” In your reworking of Bruegel’s painting, some of the people seem to be made from the earth, while others are made from water. This latter type is different from other living things in the painting. The Virgin and her companions are situated in the foreground, and their forms are particularly large, proportionally distinct from those in the midground. We can regard them as a kind of narrative “frame,” and take the entire painting as a “framed tale.”

　　MXC: Yes. In my work, the soldiers in the middle who have been sent as escorts and the indifferent bystanders at the side are all wearing clothes. The original painting is itself extremely interesting, it’s vast and some of the figures seem to have nothing to do with Jesus’s execution, some even appear to be laughing and joking. Bruegel’s painting is very profound; it touches on many different aspects of human nature. When I saw the original work, it generated many thoughts and feelings.

　　WH: The meaning of water continually changes in this series. Sometimes it points to the materiality of water, but your use of “H2O” in the series’ title seems to place an emphasis on its meaning as an essential element, not as a tangible substance. Jesus, Mary’s sorrow, frailty…it seems that the meaning of water in this work changes again. Although they are all related to water, there is not a straightforward classification that can be completely expressed.

　　MXC: Right, so I call the series H2O. Its meaning as an element is more abstract and more pure. Once H2O is contaminated with foreign matters, it turns into something else: when carbonic acid is added, it becomes Coca Cola; when a little bit of protein is added it becomes blood; when salt is added and flows out of us, it is perspiration. In ancient times, water carried a lot of impurities, not like the kind we drink today. But as an element, H2O remains the same.

　　WH: The meaning of water in your The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (based on the work of Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo, 1475) seems close to that in Carrying the Cross. Is that right?

　　MXC: Right. In the original work, St. Sebastian’s body is shot full of arrows, like a hedgehog. In my work, I imagined that the arrows that once pierced his body have flied away, and the wounds are now spilling out bodily fluids. The details at the side emphasize this point: I placed a glass vase toppled over with liquid leaking out of it to imply that the body is also like a vessel, and when the bodily fluids have all poured out, then life disappears. In my variant of this photograph, a “second view,” a suit of armor lies on the ground, implying that although man has made solid things to protect his fragile body, it can’t save life.

　　WH: Then what about Michelangelo’s Genesis? Adam seems to be in a transparent water molecule, lending the greatest sense of H2O as an element. Is the meaning of water here similar to living cells?

　　MXC: I personally consider this to be a very important piece in the series. Originally, Michelangelo’s Genesis depicted the relationship between God and Adam. But, as modern people, do we still believe in this story? So, I made a lot of changes from the original work. That transparent bubble is like a cell, and it’s also like an abstract spacecraft, a closed container carrying and protecting life through the vast sky. I originally really did think about making a spacecraft, but later decided it wasn’t necessary—just making a clear sphere was more abstract and could then be interpreted as a cell, and also as a spacecraft in the cosmos. Inside, there is a precious ball of water, cupped inside both hands. In a spacecraft, water is extremely valuable---water used for drinking, washing one’s face, rinsing one’s mouth, etc. is all needed and recycled. In the three-dimensional computer animation I have made based on the same painting, there is a group of people who are outside of this container. They are outside of its protection and suffer in a state of dehydration. They use a long straw to draw it over in order to attain life. The person in the clear sphere (i. e. Adam) transfers the water to the others, and in doing so he loses the water, loses life, and in the end becomes a skeleton, which further transforms into fragments and powder, and vanishes into the universe.

　　In this work, water is transmitted from one life to another, through a straw. Straws are a common occurrence in modern life; they are everywhere. Through them, we suck water out of sealed bottles and jars into our bodies; I can’t help but think about their symbolic significance!

　　Michelangelo’s work expresses the creation of life. But, to me, I couldn’t clearly see this matter of how life really was created (as discussed earlier). I could only see water transmitted among lives, and as a result I expressed this “transferring.” This is a major change from the original painting, from connotation to content.

　　WH: It’s like the logic of creating the world has been reversed. Originally God gave Adam life; now, this suspended sphere has become the source of life, Adam has become life’s power source, connected to God and angels through a straw.

　　MXC: Modern science has overturned a lot of the ideas and concepts of our predecessors. A long time ago, we gave our most glorious illusions to a limitless vault of heaven. But, when modern people began to have the ability to fly back and forth through the sky, they started to think that there isn’t really anything up there; it is bleak, desolate, and without life. The most miraculous and most beautiful place turns out to be our own blue planet, which is full of water and life! Moreover, all of the depictions of hell in paintings from the Middle Ages show a place deep underground raging with flames. But, consider what would happen if a nuclear war erupted and we succumbed to the approach of a manmade Judgment Day. With a sea of fire on the ground, perhaps hidden underground air-raid shelters would be the last sanctuary for life. How many people would be fortunate enough to take refuge in these holes in the ground? At that moment, a lot of our concepts would be completely altered.

　　WH: I think that this inversion is very interesting. This sanctuary in your work, protecting and sustaining life, is just like a container in the middle of a desolate and boundless cosmos. It has become the fountainhead, the origin of new life. Although this is not the original genesis, it can still be called a “genesis.” The meanings found here are quite profound.

　　In this series there are also two pieces that are based on Titian and Poussin. Titian’s work is Bacchanal, right?

　　MXC: Yes. In Titian’s work, I noticed that all the people were proposing a toast. They were all drunk, and only one child was urinating. This child moved me: no matter what refined liquor we drink, in the end what leaks out of us is only yellow urine. The old saying meaning “a good-for-nothing” (literally “wine bag and rice pocket”) seems to point out that our bodies are only a provisional container, with meat and alcohol passing through our intestines, entering and exiting our bodies. I also noticed that in the painting there was a little dog in the distance; water also passes through animals’ intestines, entering and exiting their bodies as well.

　　WH: In Poussin’s painting, water occupies a major position, appearing as it does in the real environment. It has a different form and meaning from other works in this series. Some works display the relationship between man and water—for example, immersed in a bath, containers full of water, bowls for drinking, etc. In Poussin’s work, water is a principle subject in the pictorial representation.

　　MXC: This painting is called Landscape with Diogenes. It is said that in antiquity there was a philosopher named Diogenes who passed by a stream and saw a shepherd drinking water out of his cupped hands. Diogenes thought to himself: Why have I brought a bowl for drinking water? Thus he threw it away. He wanted to be the same as the shepherd and be closer to nature. When I made a “second view” of this work, I added two swans drinking water. Animals aren’t civilized: they didn’t invent nor have they manufactured utensils, and have never had to select and abandon. This question of discarding a bowl is nonexistent to them as they have always just used their mouths to drink directly. They have always been inseparably connected with nature.

　　Similarly, in the second view of The Washing of the Feet, I added a cat. When people wash, they use water to clean themselves. Animals, meanwhile, lick themselves clean. They also wash their feet, but using a different method, the meaning is also completely different. Moreover, Jesus washing his disciples’ feet also carries an even deeper layer of ritual significance outside of cleaning the body.

　　WH: There is also the work Fountain of Youth.

　　MXC: This painting shows the magic of water as something that can allow people to temporarily become youthful again. Modern people rush about all day long. When they return home and take a shower, they become invigorated again.

　　WH: After swimming, one also feels that one’s energy returns.

　　MXC: A moment of temporary youth. We don’t know the reason why, but as soon as we get into the water we become relaxed and cheerful. Is it because our body is also 70% water? Or is it because each and every one of us at inception was enveloped in water? Or are there some other reasons? Of course, in the original painting the point is even more extreme: When elderly people pass through the Fountain of Youth, they assume entirely new appearance!

　　Of course, water also has a ruthless and tyrannical aspect, as in The Deluge. Water that creates life also destroys it.

　　WH: Actually, in all of these aspects, water is cross-cultural. In Chinese literature, we can find many examples---for instance, the legend about Yu the Great controlling the water. But what’s more interesting in Chinese culture is the link between water and a person’s disposition, for example in the saying, “The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills.”

　　MXC: “Supreme virtue is like water” also equates water with good character.

　　WH: Or, “The association between wise men is pure like water.” But, descriptions of bad moral character also adopt water metaphors, for example, the phrase for “fickle and lascivious” literally means “aqueous.” Descriptions of good and bad characters all use water metaphors.

　　MXC: Yes, this is very interesting.

　　WH: Let’s return to this entire group of works. Besides water, there are other aspects of visual representation. For example, the use of color: in some cases, your coloration is related to the original work. An example is your version of Titian’s painting, where the color is kept especially bright. But, many of your versions do not maintain a clear relevance to the source painting; for example in your transformation of Giotto’s The Washing of the Feet, although the pale ash blue seems to have a feel of the Middle Ages, it is not really connected with Giotto’s original work. How did you come to your selection of colors?

　　MXC: In this group of works, with the exception of Carrying the Cross, none of the figures in the paintings are wearing any clothes. I thought about having the colors of the physical bodies fixed to the colors of the clothing in the original work, thus maintaining a direct relationship between the two. For example, in my version of Titian’s Bacchanal, figures’ skin colors are red, orange, yellow, green, etc. If someone asked why is this person red? I would say: in the original work, figures were wearing clothes with these colors. But, I think the way I ultimately decided upon is more abstract; you avoid entering into an immediate and designated context. Clothes possess a very strong sense of directionality: they can indicate the time period, or a particular ethnicity or country.

　　Fountain of Youth offers a different case. Since all the figures use the same model, it is hard to show the process of an old person turning into a youth, so I used different colors to indicate this transformation. Elder people are shown in relatively deeper, dimmer colors, while young people are shown brighter and glossier. From left to right, color becomes gradually brighter, implying this change from old to young. I think that this perhaps employs a more “artistic” language, but it is more interesting than using clothes, skin, or hair.

　　WH: So, can we say that your works are “re-creations” of the originals? Distinctions in gender, age, character and physique are all dissolved as they all use one model.

　　MXC: Right, I think this is better.

编辑：admin