Plants and Death – 张钰卿 YUQING ZHANG

2020-2021

During my trip in Yunnan,China, due to the large size of the plants in the south, I intuitively felt how similar their components were to human body organs. This incident gave me a mysterious feeling: Are plants somehow related to humans in an unknown way? Does the withering of an individual plant mean true death for the plant, and are there other perspectives or dimensions to define the existence and life of plants?
With these questions in mind, I read “The Golden Bough”, in which the history of witchcraft records the relationship between human witchcraft and plants. Plants often play an important role. People associate the possible witchcraft effects produced by each plant based on its own growth characteristics. Later, I studied “Plant Biology” in an attempt to understand this perplexing object from a scientific perspective. But I am still in the process of understanding it.
The blurry images reflect my uncertain perception of the described object. Among the components of the images, there are ambiguous shapes with meanings that are ambiguous. They resemble both human body organs and strangely-shaped plants. In some images, I also used abstract forms; I also attempted to create installations using glass and real plants, jointly exploring time, plants and life with painting.

在云南旅行的时候，由于南方的植物体积庞大，我直观地感受到它们的组成部分与人类的身体器官多么相似。这件事带给了我神秘的感受：植物是不是与人还有某种未知的关联？个体的枯萎对植物来说是否意味着真正的死亡，有没有别的视角或维度去定义植物的存在与生命？

怀着这些问题，我阅读了《金枝》，其中的巫术历史中记载了人类巫术与植物的关系，植物常常扮演重要的角色。人们基于每种植物本身的生长特性从而联想它们可能产生的巫术效应。后来，我去学习了《植物生物学》，试图再从科学的角度理解“植物”这个让我困惑的对象。但我依然在理解它的的过程。

模糊的画面反映了我对所描述之物无法确定的认知。画面的组成部分中，有意义暧昧的形状，它们既像人类的身体器官，又像形状怪异的植物。在有些画面中我也使用了抽象的形态；我也尝试了使用玻璃和真的植物去创作装置，与绘画共同探讨时间、植物与生命。

‘Eternal Plants’,watercolor on paper,55*35cm,©️Yuqing Zhang(张钰卿) 2020

This is an ethereal scene: The root systems of the trees in the distance look like blood vessels. On the tree closer to us, there are structures like human intestines and muscles, but it is hard to make sure that they are not the lines on the tree trunk and the fungi attached to it.Two teeth float over the center of the picture, which is confusing. They look like two elves or clouds, while this lightness is incongruous with the hard texture of the teeth.And the shapes of the mountain caves and soil pits give a sense of elusive ambiguity.

《永恒的植物生命》，纸本水彩，55*35cm，©️张钰卿 2020

这是一个飘渺的环境：远方的树的根系像是血管。离我们更近的树上有着像人肠胃、肌肉的结构，却又很难令人确认那不是树干的纹路和附着其上的真菌。画面的中央漂浮着两颗牙齿，这令人感到错乱，它们就像是两只精灵，或是云朵，那种轻盈感与牙齿本身坚硬的质感格格不入。山洞、土坑的形状也令人感到某种似是而非的意味。

‘Look！Ophelia is Bathing in the Dead Sea’,watercolor on paper,55*36cm，©️Yuqing Zhang(张钰卿) 2020

My initial motivation for this artwork came from “The death of Ophelia” of John Everett Millais when I saw it in the art history class. She was floating in a river in that painting, which reminded me of the Dead Sea in China—Though it was quite different from the theme of the painting, the coincidence of names sparked my inspiration.In my painting, Ophelia is soaking in a river which seems has originated from a mountain cave, converged by water drops trickling down from the rocks. In this ethereal cavern, plants looking like human organs flourish on the rocks, which makes people confused about what place they are exactly in. Is it a place inside the human body or in a micro world? She represents art and also literature. Her dress grows into and integrates with the cave, as if it is a symbol of shared possession of eternity.

《瞧！奥菲莉亚在泡死海》，纸本水彩，55*36cm，©️张钰卿 2020

我最初创作这幅画的动机来自于在美术史课上见到John Everett Millais所画的《死去的奥菲莉亚》。她在那张画里的河流中漂浮着，这让我想起中国的死海——虽然这与画的主题大相径庭，这种名字的巧合却给了我一个灵感。我画中的奥菲莉亚泡在一条河流里，这条河流看起来好像诞生于一个山洞，由岩石滴落的水珠汇聚而成。在这个飘渺的山洞中，岩石上生长着像人体器官的植物，这令观看者非常恍惚，一时分不清这是一个什么样的环境。这里是在人的体内，还是在微观世界？她代表艺术，也代表文学，她的裙子与这个山洞生长在了一起，就像与之共同占有永恒的象征。

‘Do Souls Go to a Square？’watercolor on paper,54*40cm,©️Yuqing Zhang(张钰卿) 2020

During that period, I was thinking where people’s souls would go after death. Different books might give different answers.“Do souls go to a square ?” The idea crossed my mind.Is there any possibility that the places souls would go are those two-dimensional graphics in our math books? It sounds very absurd；However, it is precisely its absurdity that convinces me of its plausibility.I drew a plant cell structure to represent the place that souls depart from — It’s not a real cell in the strict sense for there is something like dandelion seeds inside it, which represents the lightness of souls when departing from life.

《灵魂是否去往正方形？》纸本水彩，54*40cm，©️张钰卿

2020那段时间，我一直在想人的生命死去之后灵魂会去什么地方。对于这个问题，不同的书本里会写出不同的答案。“灵魂会去往正方形吗？”我脑子里浮现这样一个念头。会不会灵魂去往的地方是我们数学书上的那些二维图形？这听起来非常荒谬，但由于非常荒谬，我对此感到信服。我画了一个植物细胞结构来代表灵魂出发的地方——它不完全是真正的细胞，它里面有一些像蒲公英种子的事物，这代表灵魂在脱离生命时的状态的轻盈。

Human’s Love is Envied at Hell,watercolor on paper,53*39cm,©️Yuqing Zhang(张钰卿) 2020

“Hell” or similar concepts is the place that souls would go in many legends. I believe that such a place must transcend time limits and intertwine with eternity.Therefore, I also depicted some obscure shapes here to symbolize the eternity. But I think there must be some regrets that transcend the dimension of time and coexist perhaps due to the lack of human love. Love is also the least thing that people would let go when life’s journey draws to a close.

“地狱”或类似的概念是很多传说中灵魂所去往之处。我想这样的地方一定会超越时间的限制，与永恒交织在一起。所以，我在这里也描绘了那些晦涩的形状来象征一种永恒性。但我想，在那里一定有什么是由于超越时间维度而并存的遗憾，也许是缺少人类的爱意；爱也是生命逝去时，最恋恋不舍的东西。

I am interested in collecting some broken and dead things. I always think that the fragments are also powerful forms of life. I endeavored to convey this notion in this artwork.Broken glass and withered plants were glued together with glass cement to form something similar to a butterfly. Is it truly a butterfly? Could it fly carrying death with it?

我喜欢搜集一些破碎掉、死去的事物。我总觉得碎片也是一种重要的生命。在这个作品中，我试图去呈现这一点，碎玻璃和枯萎的植物用玻璃胶粘合成了像类似于蝴蝶的形态。它是蝴蝶吗？它会承载着死亡一起飞走吗？

碎掉的茶壶，就像一个天然的小型剧场。剧场的题目是“死亡”。