Paradise on Earth · Kunming
March – April 2026
- Material
- Ink on raw xuan paper
- Dimensions
- 50 × 50 cm · 20 × 20 in
- Location
- Qiongzhu Temple, Kunming
Our Children · 4 of 5
Picture Story
Ink on raw xuan paper, 50 × 50 cm, created at Qiongzhu Temple, Kunming, April 2026.
Mourning the 150+ schoolchildren killed in the attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School for Girls in Minab, Iran, on 28 February 2026.
The artist engaged in dialogue with the thousand-year-old sculptures of Qiongzhu Temple. In the painting, beams of light cleave through darkness; children's bodies entangled in pools of blood; the halo above their heads both an angelic ring and the flash of explosion.
This work is a brutal counter-proof to the belief that "when humans connect with each other, it is paradise" — calling for an end to mutual slaughter in the name of wealth and power. A direct voice as one person, about the moment we must change.
Project Story
March 15 to mid-April 2026. This series was created by the artist upon returning to Kunming after a self-healing journey through Laos and Thailand, resonating with other scrolls of Paradise on Earth made during his travels.
The loss of his parents was still fresh, the grief raw; simultaneously, crises in the external world were unfolding in succession — from the lingering trauma of the pandemic to continuous conflicts between the US and Iran, the flames of Gaza, and the Russia–Ukraine war — humanity's fate hangs in the balance.
Self-made charcoal · traditional mineral pigments · raw xuan paper