"Celestial Garden Of Blue And White" (青花幻境)
// BLURB //
In Chinese culture, butterflies are not symbols of escape, but of continuity. They appear at the meeting point of change and return, where transformation is neither sudden nor accidental. The philosopher Zhuangzi (莊子), writing more than two thousand years ago, used the butterfly not as metaphor, but as inquiry. He once described a dream in which he lived freely as a butterfly, only to wake and wonder whether he was a man who had dreamed of flight, or a butterfly now dreaming of being human. The question was never about confusion, but about permeability, the ease with which one state becomes another. From a scientific perspective, the butterfly is a triumph of order. Metamorphosis is not disappearance but reorganization, a precise rewriting of form. Blue wings shimmer through structure rather than pigment, bending light into color. White wings reflect the spectrum quietly, without spectacle. Together, blue and white suggest a system in balance, complexity held by restraint. What feels delicate is, in fact, durable. The butterfly survives by timing, by sensitivity, by responding rather than resisting. It moves with air currents yet remains exact, navigating vast gardens through mechanisms almost invisible. Between blue and white, between dream and waking, the butterfly moves within a state of becoming.
In Chinese culture, butterflies are not symbols of escape, but of continuity. They appear at the meeting point of change and return, where transformation is neither sudden nor accidental. The philosopher Zhuangzi (莊子), writing more than two thousand years ago, used the butterfly not as metaphor, but as inquiry. He once described a dream in which he lived freely as a butterfly, only to wake and wonder whether he was a man who had dreamed of flight, or a butterfly now dreaming of being human. The question was never about confusion, but about permeability, the ease with which one state becomes another. From a scientific perspective, the butterfly is a triumph of order. Metamorphosis is not disappearance but reorganization, a precise rewriting of form. Blue wings shimmer through structure rather than pigment, bending light into color. White wings reflect the spectrum quietly, without spectacle. Together, blue and white suggest a system in balance, complexity held by restraint. What feels delicate is, in fact, durable. The butterfly survives by timing, by sensitivity, by responding rather than resisting. It moves with air currents yet remains exact, navigating vast gardens through mechanisms almost invisible. Between blue and white, between dream and waking, the butterfly moves within a state of becoming.
EDITION, MEDIA, SIZE & WEIGHT
Unique Edition, Shanghai 2025
RGB LED display, acrylic painting on Plexiglass, Chinese ink on Vietnamese linen embedded in hand cast resin, teakwood frame
120(W)×120(H)×5.5(D) cm // 46 kg
CRATE SIZE & WEIGHT
132(W)×132(H)×21(D) cm // 86.9 kg
EXPOSURE
“The Fourth Wall” at island6 Shanghai
CREDITS
Wang Chuanwen 王传文 (painting) • Shengqiu Li 李生秋 (calligraphy) • Helen Chen 陈韵涵 (art direction) • Thomas Charvériat (art direction) • Yeung Sin Ching 杨倩菁 (production supervisor) • Tiara Alvarado-Leon (blurb)
Unique Edition, Shanghai 2025
RGB LED display, acrylic painting on Plexiglass, Chinese ink on Vietnamese linen embedded in hand cast resin, teakwood frame
120(W)×120(H)×5.5(D) cm // 46 kg
CRATE SIZE & WEIGHT
132(W)×132(H)×21(D) cm // 86.9 kg
EXPOSURE
“The Fourth Wall” at island6 Shanghai
CREDITS
Wang Chuanwen 王传文 (painting) • Shengqiu Li 李生秋 (calligraphy) • Helen Chen 陈韵涵 (art direction) • Thomas Charvériat (art direction) • Yeung Sin Ching 杨倩菁 (production supervisor) • Tiara Alvarado-Leon (blurb)
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