DSL Collection

About Microcosm - 9-panel installation:
To see death from birth, and birth from death;
To see hell from heaven, and heaven from hell;
To see the end from the beginning, and the beginning from the end.
The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch is a triptych. It is commonly recognized that the left wing represents heaven, the central panel earth, and the right wing hell. Facing such a painting, I would like to do two things:
First: remoulding the original triptych into a nine-panel painting, and remoulding one perspective into seven perspectives using three-dimensional software. The three front panels have the same perspective as the original painting where heaven, earth and hell are shown. The other six side panels are added to show further perspectives. After remoulding the two-dimensional painting into a three-dimensional scene, the side panels reflect various perspectives by examining the original three scenes, now linked together on the same dimension, from different viewpoints. From heaven, surpassing earth, one can directly see hell, and from hell one can also look back at earth and heaven; from birth we see death, and from death we look back at birth; from the beginning we view the end, and from the end we review the beginning.
Second: remoulding an ancient fable into a modern fable. The original painting shows a spectacular scene with numerous characters, and it is depicted with countless details which cannot easily be interpreted. Maybe for Hieronymus Bosch's contemporaries, all of these details were explicitly obvious. Yet for modern people who are situated in a different context, these details appear obscure, bewildering and confusing. Thus, I would like to use our modern language to create a new allegory, to metaphorically express my views about the world, my understandings of existence and death, and this is an alternative way of digging into the roots of mysteries belonging to other times.


Paradise
Desireless robot,
Will you be our obedient Adam???
Armless Venus,
Finds the forbiddance to pick the forbidden fruit needless!!!

Earth
Heavens and earth reformed,
Time and space transformed,
Four-wheel cars everywhere,
Four-foot horses nowhere,
Tigers and wolves tamed,
Cattle and sheep crazed.

Hell
The doom of the world,
Occurs??
At a press of a button,
On a piece of keyboard,
No time difference,
No one can escape.


Microcosm - 3D computer animation script


1. Magnifying glass
There are two ??O??s in the opening caption ??Microcosm??. The ??O?? in Micro is used as a magnifying glass, and the ??O?? in cosm is a symbol for some place, for example, the earth that we live in. It represents that among the boundless universe, looking from another perspective of space and time, how many times do we have to magnify it, so that our own world can be found ---Is our birth really birth, our death really death, happiness really happiness, and pain really pain? How many times do we have to magnify it, so that mountains appear high, and oceans deep?


2. Lucky fruit
A hand hanging in the air drops an apple. One piece of the apple was bitten off mid-air. Then a pile of apples fell from the sky, some went through transparent channels with the noise of coins falling from slot machines when you win in casinos.

We are all very lucky to be living on a planet that is suitable for human beings, just like we have won the lottery.


3. Adam and Eve
I only used one three-dimensional model, digital, male. There is no way for me to use this one model to represent both Adam and Eve from heaven at the same time. Robots came to my mind: strong, tireless, obedient, doing all kinds of hard work without any complaints; they obey our written programs and commands unconditionally. For Eve, I though of Venus de Milo in Louvre Museum: armless Venus who cannot reach for the forbidden fruit. She lost her arms, would this woman then become the most beautiful and most innocent woman in the world because of that?

The reason why I made such a seemingly unrelated representation is that I do not remember what else Eve did in heaven other than she picked the forbidden fruit. I do not remember what Adam did as well, only that he violated God??s will.


4. Giving orders
Human beings give countless commands to the robot. The most important principle is: the robot must obey human beings; otherwise, as creators, human beings might not have the capabilities to punish the robot which is being created.


5. Two kinds of animals
Two kinds of animals surround Adam and Eve; one kind is pets, tamed cats and dogs, dolphins swimming in the pool; another kind is furry toy animals created by human beings, cute, without any dangers at all.

The role of human beings on earth is too special and too honorable; we are only one step away from being the ruler of this planet. Only tamed animals are allowed to be around human beings, such as docile puppies and kittens. For tigers, lions and bears, they can only be close to humans once they are made into furry toys; otherwise, they can only be locked in cages or put away in a protection zone. This is somewhat a problem.


6. Giraffes
Some giraffes have long necks and some have short ones. Those with short necks can eat grass on the ground, and those with long necks can eat leaves from trees. They all get what they want, so they live together harmoniously without any conflicts: what a great picture of heaven. Unfortunately, there is more trouble for humans who have necks of the same length and intelligence of the same level. From outer space to deep underwater, power and regions are being redistributed once and again according to the ever growing or weakening power of different countries.


7. Half-hearted
Pieces of papers with written commands are separated from Robot Adam??s hands; they rise to the sky and start to dance mid-air. Sometimes papers are scattered all over the place; sometimes they are connected to one piece (represented by different colored papers connect with each other and turn into the same color); and sometimes papers fall in an unordered manner creating a mess.

As an individual, one human being would not be considered strong in absolute terms when facing the nature, other species, even other human beings ?C humans cannot fly into the sky, dive into the underground; our skin and hair are not adequate for cold winters and hot summers. We are not as fierce as lions and tigers, not as agile as monkeys. Only when humans communicate with each other and stay united that we can have extraordinary powers. Humans use language as a kind of media to accumulate experiences from previous generations, wisdom of other ethnic groups and powers of machines; those are all passed on to later generations.


8. Be waited on hand and foot
A flying bird is shot midair; it falls, cooked and becomes delicious food within plates. Wine glass, football, diet, losing weight.

If I have to shoot a bird in order to get a taste of meat, I would for sure starve to death. We live a life with extremely easy access to food; we buy chicken, duck, fish and meat from the supermarket and store them in the refrigerator. We can have them as we wish. We do not capture those animals by hunting, nor do we feed them or raise them in our backyards. We are getting further and further away from the nature.


9. Four-wheel cars everywhere, four-foot horses nowhere
??Road?? used to be called ??horse road?? in Chinese, and the original definition is ??road for horses to run??. Since the invention of automobiles, cars run on streets instead of horses, therefore, ??horse road?? was changed into ??street for vehicles??. Horses gain their strength from eating grass, but cars have to eat oil to run. Oil then became the blood of our generation, and we cannot live without it for one day --- a price we have to pay to acquire the speed and comfort we have never experienced.

The horse that should not have run on the ??horse road?? or ??street for vehicles?? is hit and being splattered into pieces. The heart of the horse became an engine, its pieces combined into a ??BMW?? sports car which gone off with the speed of wind.


10. Lifetime hard work
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
--- Genesis 3??17


11. Garden of earthly delights
Spring wind blows, and all creatures come alive. Trees sway; people??s faces glow. Pink peaches and green willows; fragrant flowers and singing birds. This is the most joyful time, and I wish I could kidnap time.

The camera follows the mosquito closely, sometimes flying high and sometimes low; sometimes slow and sometimes fast. It flies up and down, left and right until it flies out of the scene. Transition.


12. Sour grapes
A transparent bubble is flowing on the water; people sit amid flowing with the water. One of them is trying to grab grapes from another group of people, unsuccessful.

Grapes not acquired can be considered sour grapes, and there should not be desire for it anymore. Grapes acquired will be eaten, digested, turned sour, fermented and became the carrier of a new round of desire.


13. Sacrificing to feed birds
Humans are turned into potato and cucumber, and the human-shaped potato is being peeled and cucumber being sliced; a flock of hungry birds swiftly took all slices. Animals, vegetables and fruits are probably not that willing to sacrifice themselves to provide proteins and vitamins for humans. They are not Buddhists and they are not willing to suffer from baking, frying, steaming or stewing just to become delicious.


14. Life is like a chess game
A chessboard is situated in the foreground, and one game is played after another. There are numerous figures in the scene, some are disappearing somewhere and reappearing somewhere else.

Life is like a chess game full of changes and uncertainties. Humans are like chessmen, and they are being pushed by a certain power without their own control. Either you win or lose, there is only one game for you. You will leave after the game, and there are no re-matches or re-placing of chessman.


15. Killer music
With the album slowly spinning, two dancing people disappear gradually; cluster of people dance wildly inside the harp, and they are being cut into pieces and scattered on the floor. Weapons can kill people; knowledge from books and science & technology can also make people die. Even music, it might mobilize all kinds of passionate and uncontrollable emotions that could kill people without their realizing it.


16. No time difference
Either it is New York, Paris or London, the clock hands of the polygonal clock point at the same time, there is no difference in time.

When catastrophes come, there is no harbor of refugee in the world; there are no utopian places; everyone faces disasters at the same time.


17. Recycling weapons
Every species has a killer tool, even tamed cows and goats have horns to protect themselves; of course humans would also have such tools. If humans produce devastating weapons just to threaten and contain each other, and those weapons are being recycled or put in exhibitions ?C non-explosive weapons from ancient times are being exhibited in museums ?C then it is not a bad thing; it is just that we consumed a lot of manpower and resources. However, once we start a war, there will be unimaginable consequences. Humans will not be able to face and handle such consequences, let alone cleaning the mess up. In the animation, the knife and fork on bombs, the broken porcelain plate, and the garbage bin with environmental protection signs are all images related to the above concerns.


18. Fear nothing with a strong backing
Tanks drove by loudly one after another, and guns firing non-stop. Kung-fu masters on the tank are doing Bruce Lee??s moves; other kung-fu masters die in front of the tank; there are also other kung-fu masters doing side kicks. Skeletons jump and death comes.

Humans wish to have some sort of internal power or external power to fight strong enemies. In ancient times, if you had good kung-fu skills, then you had no enemies. In modern times, you have to have all kinds of sophisticated weapons in order to police the whole world and confront other countries. This kind of power needs continuous upgrades; otherwise, just like the kung-fu masters standing on tanks in this animation: they are just brave but useless.


19. Dance of Death
Skeletons dance on the notebook computer.

In ancient times, to destroy all civilizations on this planet requires an extremely long process; and we could almost optimistically believe that the destruction would never happen. It could only be a phase, in some regions and can be recovered. However, nowadays, to destroy all human kind on this planet only requires the movement of a few fingers and a few buttons. We can almost pessimistically believe that once the program is activated, there is no way back. It is permanent, full-scale and irreversible.


20. Escape
A gigantic monument-like head portrait sees a military aircraft flying by.

The precondition of destruction is usually that the destructor can escape before the destruction happens.


21. Total destruction of all
A firefighter is trying his best to run with a fire extinguisher on his head. Sky scrapers are collapsing one after another. Televisions, washing machines, refrigerators, ovens, microwaves, keyboards, and artworks are all over the place creating a major mess. The firefighter is sacrificing his life; paintings falling off; machines destroyed, a total destruction of good and bad and everything.

Civilization can be destroyed in one second. The power to save it is minimal.


22. All Empty
The refrigerator door opens, and one last apple falls from it. The refrigerator door rebounds and reopens; the apple falls on the ground and it was picked up by another hand. A bunch of empty refrigerators stand like tombstones, and refrigerator doors are opening and closing in the wind just like the death knell.

A pile of ice cubes are squished together and skeletons appear in a subtle way. There are three baby cries as the background noise. Three spacecrafts rocket into the sky.


23. The Last Supper
There is an egg inside the first spaceship, and there are 13 people on the egg. Their movements and gestures are arranged in a ring shape somewhat according to da Vinci??s The Last Supper. If those people are arranged in one row, it would be an exact replication of da Vinci??s artwork. All people shrink into the eggshell and disappear.

People are born in different times, yet they are destroyed at the same time.


24. Noah??s Ark
The second and third spaceships contain animals and plants.

Assume that the earth is destroyed, and we have to find another homeland. Here, the spaceship can be considered a modern version of the Noah??s Ark; how many people can it carry? Who is qualified to go away? How many animals shall we bring to another planet in order to provide protein for humans? How many plants shall we bring to another planet to make oxygen for humans?


25. Birth and Death
At the beginning of my birth, I must have strong feelings about life, but I was not capable of recording such feelings. When I finally learned to read, make sentences and express my feelings, it is already ten years later and I have already forgotten all the joy at the beginning of life. Then I learned to use languages other than words --- painting, photography and animations --- to express my thoughts, but the forty-five-year old me have no whatsoever memory of my birth. This is looking back at birth, something that I have experienced. If I am asked to describe the experience and feeling that I have within the 10 seconds of birth, I have no other ways to do so except to make up stories.

About death: I have never experienced it, and all I get is hearsay and imaginary feelings. Within the 10 seconds before death, I must have profound understandings about death; I must be as wise as a philosopher. However, I do not have the time to use words or artistic means to record it; I probably do not even have the strength to cry or laugh.

Thus I am certain that I can only make all kinds of assumptions about birth and death in my whole life, and there is absolutely no way for me to express the deepest and most genuine feelings. To put other people in my shoes, this is a common problem that all thinkers, philosophers and artists face since ancient times. We are not satisfied with the definitions of birth and death, so we are still exploring tirelessly.

Words are for quibble, and art is for affectation. Birth is birth, it is a matter of one moment, and it has nothing to do with art; death is just death, it is also a matter of one moment, and it has nothing to do with art as well.


Background music:
Background music is composed with three tracks.

The first part is Wagner??s Tannhauser Overture conducted by Jansug Kakhidze and played by Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra. When I was doing the background music, a war in Georgia started, so I put the names of the composer, the conductor and the orchestra on a slowing spinning album in the animation to memorialize them.

I did not change the tempo, speed and melody of Wagner??s music. I was always thinking that my images have to be as strong as his music, and they cannot be separated, disturbed or destructed by his music. If I can do this, then I believe that my images are strong and intense enough. Therefore, rather than calling this ??background music??, it is probably more appropriate to call it confrontation and reaching some kind of balance in this confrontation.

The second part is all kinds of noises; some are related to the scenes in the animation to create an atmosphere; some are not related to the scenes, they are specially made to express a specific meaning.

The third part is non-stop keyboard clicking sounds from the start to the end. One part of this is to show that all of the things are happening in a virtual reality; maybe it reflects the real world, the past, the current and the future to some extent. Another part is to show the working condition of me and my whole team: we sit in front of the computer clicking keyboards everyday, all seasons, and day after night in order to turn the invisible into visible, and soundless into sounds.


Old and new media
The expression form of works done by new media is different from that of traditional ones. I think the relation between the traditional and new media is not necessarily that we have to choose one against another, but there could be inheritance and further development. I can reproduce a form in the art history by digital means. Outwardly, there may be some similarities between the two, but inside they are worlds apart.
For example, I am always interested in Chinese ink painting, but I didn??t find a way to work it out in computer until now. By digital ink, the Chinese ink painting features both delicate drawing and freehand splash. Previously, delicate drawing required thin silk or rice paper with alum coating, which is not good for freehand splash; splash brushwork, on the other hand, chose unprocessed rice paper, on which you are unable to outline the object with exquisite lines. You can not sell the cow and drink the milk. The digital ink, however, makes that possible, driving me excited.
What makes me even more exhilarated is that this possibility can go on continuously. .It only requires energy, time and enough enthusiasm.

3D digital Ink and Wash Painting
My obsession with ??Line?? is perhaps rooted in the high regard I hold for traditional Chinese painting. Nearly all the collective art experiences from around the world have at some point gone through a stage in which ??line?? constitutes the dominant form of expression. However, with traditional Chinese painting it seems that far more emphasis is placed on the incomparable expressive power of the line, because it is at the same time so concise yet it can eloquently express the essence of anything in its totality.
For the past three years since 2005, I have sat in front of my computer every day, working with my assistants using 3D software to build models and using all these models to construct a 3D virtual world. Points are connected to form a line, then lines to form a surface, and then the whole thing is re-rendered into a seemingly real object. Then one day I thought ??why not use the lines directly to make an art work??? These lines depict the contours of an object??s fundamental shape and also reveal the beauty of form. I am particularly excited about printing these lines on Xuan paper in order to simulate the beauty of traditional line drawing, but achieving it with a modern inkjet printer and ink instead of using a traditional Chinese brush and ink.
3D drawings differ from the traditional line drawings because the latter depict only the visible aspect, as it would be seen from the viewer??s perspective. Anything that is obstructed from view or not directly in the viewer??s line of sight is not necessarily shown. Whereas objects in 3D line drawings are, in effect, transparent as the viewer can gaze through them to what is behind them.
Because of the nature of software and computer calculations used in 3D drawing, all the contours of the objects are visible, regardless if they are at the back of an object or concealed behind other objects. This yields a transparent and three-dimensional appearance. Even with a face in profile, viewers will be able to see both eyes, not just the one on the side of the viewer. This, in a way carries a taste of Cubism, reminiscent of Picasso??s paintings, portraying both eyes on the same side of a profile portrait. But for computers and software, all this is just a matter of course; there is no requisite reason or ?Cism, it is purely something essential.
The beauty of traditional line drawing, Cubism from the early last century and technological wonders of the 21st century encounter unexpectedly, running into each other!
Drawing
Originally, drawing is a study of natural form and structure. In that case, the improvisation and incompleteness of drawing will be discarded after the work is done. Nowadays, however, we come to realize that drawing can also be an independent expression.
In my work, drawing is only necessary in expression instead of function. Now that we can draw a picture facing the natural world, we can do the same in the virtual world. The only difference is that it is a process of retroaction in the latter case. Every sketch has a computer diaphragm around it which indicates that the image is formed in the computer before being drawn, so that my drawing is opposite to the traditional ones, despite of using the same tool- a pen or a pencil.

Embroidery
When 3D software is used to make a piece of work, the first step is to form a surface by gridlines. Different colours distinguish various objects. With colorful gridlines changing before my eyes, especially when lines of different color lap over each other, the image is just like the embroidery. One day I made up my mind to fix the variably colored gridlines in accordance with traditional forms of hand embroidery.
I am not clear to what extent has the computer replaced handicraft. But at least in the above way, my embroidery combines the computer with handicraft. The work is quite time-consuming and energy-consuming, because the women workers have to embroider all the gridlines generated by the computer.

Sculpture
The fact that all my works are done by 3D software means that, with a proper output way, all virtual 3D forms can become real??the sculpture in traditional meaning. This is 3D printing technology, used to be applied to industrial modeling, which I think can also serve arts.
I did not discover all charms of this idea completely yet, but I am convinced that it absolutely deserves further experiment.