Year One · He

The keyword of the first year is 「abstinence」. It is at once a visual response to the Tibetan Buddhist 「three years, three months」 retreat tradition, and a declaration of secular practice — no mountain cave, no master; the vegetable market is the retreat hall, the bicycle is the dharma instrument. The first year, 「refining essence into vital breath, disciplining the body」 — in the daily care of his mother, buying food, cooking, end-of-life comfort are transformed into a practice of abstinence. The aerial roots of the ancient tree hang down like nerves, suggesting the tension between life and death, between root-system and detachment.

In 2014, his mother was diagnosed with cancer; doctors pronounced twenty days. The artist flew back from Beijing, splitting into 「Lao Mu」 and 「Meng Chunsheng」 — one caring for his parents for three years, the other creating in Jingdezhen before abandoning it. Referencing the Tibetan Buddhist 「three years, three months」 retreat, he designed his own secular practice: Year One, abstinence; Year Two, sitting unmoved; Year Three, fighting poison with poison. Carried to hospital by ambulance, wheelchair-bound for half a year. The little vegetable-market bicycle is the entire instrument of dharma and the third retention.