"Spicy Tomato Sardine" (红塔辣妹)
// BLURB //
Long before mermaids appeared in storybooks with tidy biographies and predictable songs, the Chinese imagination had already considered the possibility of beings who belonged equally to water and wonder. In early texts, scholars wrote of the Jiaoren (鮫人), elusive figures said to dwell in the depths of the southern seas. They were described not as temptresses of sailors, but as quiet artisans of the tide. Legend suggested that when these beings wept, their tears hardened into pearls, a detail that feels less like fantasy and more like philosophy. Sorrow, after all, often leaves something luminous behind. Such stories reveal a distinctly Chinese habit of mind: the urge to observe the strange not with fear, but with curiosity. What lives beneath the surface? What forms of intelligence move through the unseen currents of the world? One imagines a mermaid gliding through cool blue water, swimming calmly beside a silver cloud of spicy sardines. The merfolk of these traditions were less monsters than metaphors, reminders that the boundary between realms is rarely as firm as we imagine. Somewhere below the shifting waterline, legend and observation continue to share the same waters.
Long before mermaids appeared in storybooks with tidy biographies and predictable songs, the Chinese imagination had already considered the possibility of beings who belonged equally to water and wonder. In early texts, scholars wrote of the Jiaoren (鮫人), elusive figures said to dwell in the depths of the southern seas. They were described not as temptresses of sailors, but as quiet artisans of the tide. Legend suggested that when these beings wept, their tears hardened into pearls, a detail that feels less like fantasy and more like philosophy. Sorrow, after all, often leaves something luminous behind. Such stories reveal a distinctly Chinese habit of mind: the urge to observe the strange not with fear, but with curiosity. What lives beneath the surface? What forms of intelligence move through the unseen currents of the world? One imagines a mermaid gliding through cool blue water, swimming calmly beside a silver cloud of spicy sardines. The merfolk of these traditions were less monsters than metaphors, reminders that the boundary between realms is rarely as firm as we imagine. Somewhere below the shifting waterline, legend and observation continue to share the same waters.
EDITION, MEDIA, SIZE & WEIGHT
One-of-a-kind work, issued as a unique edition. A preliminary prototype may exist within the collective’s archive and may serve as a museum proof for future exhibition or provenance traceability.,
Shanghai 2025
TFT display, media player, Staedtler black pigment ink, acrylic & oil paint on Vietnamese linen embedded in hand cast resin, teakwood frame
84.1(W)×114.8(H)×5.1(D) cm // 31 kg
CRATE SIZE & WEIGHT
100(W)×130(H)×21(D) cm // 61 kg
EXPOSURE
“Welcome To The Neighborhood” at island6 Shanghai
CREDITS
Shengqiu Li 李生秋 (painting) • Camilla Zhao 赵莹 (performance) • Thomas Charvériat (art direction) • Yeung Sin Ching 杨倩菁 (production supervisor) • Tiara Alvarado-Leon (blurb)
One-of-a-kind work, issued as a unique edition. A preliminary prototype may exist within the collective’s archive and may serve as a museum proof for future exhibition or provenance traceability.,
Shanghai 2025
TFT display, media player, Staedtler black pigment ink, acrylic & oil paint on Vietnamese linen embedded in hand cast resin, teakwood frame
84.1(W)×114.8(H)×5.1(D) cm // 31 kg
CRATE SIZE & WEIGHT
100(W)×130(H)×21(D) cm // 61 kg
EXPOSURE
“Welcome To The Neighborhood” at island6 Shanghai
CREDITS
Shengqiu Li 李生秋 (painting) • Camilla Zhao 赵莹 (performance) • Thomas Charvériat (art direction) • Yeung Sin Ching 杨倩菁 (production supervisor) • Tiara Alvarado-Leon (blurb)
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