In the northern hemisphere water circles clockwise before continuing its journey down the drain. In the southern hemisphere I am told it circles counterclockwise before descending.
In the West, writing is organised in lines from the top of the page to the bottom going from left to right. Traditionally in the East writing was composed in columns descending from the top to the bottom of the page and organised right to left across the page. Clay roof tiles in the West are laid in convex courses and in the East the courses are laid in a concave fashion. Even royal colors are opposites – western royalty wore purple and imperial chinese wore yellow. The West prefers organising geographies from smaller to larger: street, city, province, and China prefers larger to smaller organisation: province, city, street. The polarity continues to even the way time is conceptually ordered, which seems to present endless confusion with translation software. The West considers the past to be below (ie we build upon the past) and the future is above. Chinese express the past as SHANG 上 (above or on top of) and the future is XIA 下 (under or below).
Sometimes I wonder if somewhere in the world there is a place that water does not circle to the left or to the right, but effortlessly and without hesitation continues a leisurely journey to its destination.
My work in China references this distinct cultural narrative. Here are a few paintings that I did last year in my studio outside of Beijing.
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