Bridge

III. Bridge

My father's surname was Mu (木) and his given name was Qiao (乔). Stacked, the two characters form 桥 — 「bridge.」

The Han Nai-He Bridge is judgment and forgetting; the Naxi soul-path is memory and return. He himself was the bridge built between life and death.

In the painting, boat and bridge become one — the vessel floating in the ink whirlpool is itself the form of a bridge. The dense black current is the water of Lethe, and also the river of lost souls in the Naxi ghost realm; the pale gold hull at the centre is the ferry, and the passage; the vermilion and warm tones on the right are the last warmth of this shore.

There are thousands of ways to cross a bridge: step on stone slabs, ride a boat, take Noah's Ark. I choose ink as the boat and brushstroke as the bridge.

Now the bridge is burned, the piers ground to powder, but the bridge has done its work — my father has crossed from this side to the other.

《Hua Niao Dao》 is an island residency carried out by Mu Yuming from 17 September to 17 October 2025 on Huaniao Island, Shengsi, Zhejiang — arriving on the island twelve days after the death of his father on 5 September 2025. From the funeral to the sea wind.

A friend dreamed of the artist's parents walking hand in hand; his father said: 「Our child can stand on his own now.」 Finally, graduation.