Time-Travel Series
Aout “Crossing Series – Men, Women”
Both men and women are essential elements to the survival and continuation of our society. The relationship between men and women are psychological, emotional, physical, and material; the relationship is built upon the foundations of evolutionary biology, complex social ethic boundaries, and the intricate balance between emotional and sexual desires. In China, there was a woman who charmed powerful men for her personal gains and power, which led China into the dark ages for almost half a century and nearly brought a great empire to complete ruin. In ancient Greece, countless men waged war against one another for one woman and defeated the impenetrable city of Troy. In modern days, things have not changed much, love between men and woman can fill the world with beauty and happiness, but the same love can also bring immense grotesqueness and corruption. There’s a popular saying in China, “behind a successful man, there is never only one woman; behind a successful woman, there is never only one man.” In the past, wealthy and powerful men often practiced polygamy, today, wealthy and powerful men can have harems as large as they can afford.
In the “Men, Women” series, clothed men represent all that are material and worldly; nude men and women represent all that are instinctual and primitive. This is to express the vagrancy of human emotions and the interconnection between the material and the immaterial. This series also attempts to demonstrate the paradoxical yet rational relationship between human primeval instinct and individual social, moral responsibilities.
About “Crossing Series – Living Environment”
Environmental issues are arguably the biggest problem that the human race has yet to find answers for in this century. A very large number of works are dedicated to this issue in this series. The triptych piece “Crossing Series – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” utilizes the changes in color palettes between the three panels to symbolize the harmful outcomes of environmental pollution, as well as the alteration of human relationships due to economic and cultural modernization. In the first panel “Yesterday”, simple colors like black, white, and gray are used on human characters, because people’s material wealth and possessions were very limited in the past, but psychologically and emotionally, people were generally blissful. In this piece, characters’ expressions are relaxed and happy, relationships between individuals are simple, and there are no excessive desires. The colors of the background are clean and bright, much like the environment that has not yet been tarnished.
The second panel “Today” contains characters that are extremely colorful, the richness of the palette represents material wealth and abundancy, however, the relationships between individuals have become cold, and the atmosphere is filled with suspicion and nervousness. People are not as carefree as before, the environment is not as clean as yesterday; the bright colors of the background are transferred to the characters in the foreground, while the blacks and grays of the characters are passed onto the background. This reversal of colors symbolizes a tradeoff between human consumption and environmental impact. Essentially, we are trading the health of our environment for our excessive demand for resources.
In the third panel “Tomorrow”, colors in the background are mostly gone, and colors on the characters are blurry and difficult to distinguish. Humans are experiencing the consequences of climate change and have come to realize that survival as a species is potentially a concern. At this point, relationships between people are no longer important, the most pressing task of the human race is to collectively protect our living environment. However, the damages are done, many things are irreversible, and it is too late to try to restore our environment to its f