木玉明

Vipassanā · Zongtong Temple

4 December 2025 — 10 January 2026

Material
Ink, pu-erh tea water, Chinese mineral pigments, charcoal and incense ash on raw xuan paper
Dimensions
35 × 35 cm

He (II) · 8 of 21

Picture Story

A companion view of 《He》. Four superimposed figures: the recently departed father, the father of humankind, the great elder in the crystal coffin, and the higher observer behind the miracle.

Project Story

From 4 December 2025 to 10 January 2026, the artist Lao Mu undertook a forty-one-day intensive Vipassanā retreat at Wat Jong Thong (宗通寺) in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Throughout the retreat, painting served as an action-record, leaving traces of movement on a 35 cm × 50 m raw xuan paper scroll.

《宗通寺》 is the extreme meeting of conceptual performance and the ink tradition. Between observer and observed exists an angle — that is the 'who am I?' The forty-one days were not a search for an answer, but time's material sedimentation: letting the question surface on its own.

Ink · pu-erh ripened tea water · Chinese mineral pigments · charcoal · incense ash · raw xuan paper (35 × 50 m scroll and individual 35 × 35 cm and 35 × 100 cm panels).