Death Gaze

March 2013. Mother in the late stage of cancer — the hospital diagnosis: only twenty days left. The artist set aside his exhibition preparations at a Beijing art museum and returned to Kunming.

He did not tell mother the truth. Home. Cooking with his own hands. Afraid he might not see her again, he drew her at once.

For the ten years that followed he became mother's nurse, caretaker, companion. Every day: buying groceries, cooking, listening, consoling. When mother was not looking, he recorded quickly — ten hand-drawn diaries, in charcoal, pencil, watercolour, ink, whatever was at hand.

January 2023. The pandemic opened up. Mother was infected and soon passed. He could not get there in time. The family burned her clothes and kept the ashes — untouched for three years. This work may never be "finished".

One oil painting, ten diaries, dozens of sketches, one box of ashes.

This is not art about death. This is art about how to live.