敦煌莫高窟（第二百五十七窟）·北魏·九色鹿本生故事 60cm×300cm.jpg

The Deer King

A journey, a story, an exploration.

Origin
In the summer vacation of 2010, I embarked on a journey along the Silk Road with several colleagues from the Academy of Fine Arts. We traveled all the way west, through the Hexi Corridor, across the Yumen Pass and Yang Pass, through the three counties of Wuwei, Zhangye, and Jiuquan, and came to Dunhuang, the famous gateway to the Western Regions. Dunhuang, also known as Shazhou, was once home to the ancient Qiangrong, Dayuezhi, Usun people and Serbian people. With the development of the Silk Road in the Han Dynasty, it became a "key to the throat" and the center of the Silk Road, making it a center and transit point for trade between China and the West. Hu merchants from the Western Regions and Han merchants from the Central Plains gathered here, engaging in the trade of silk and porcelain from the Central Plains, treasures from the Western Regions, camel and horse from the North, and local grain. At the same time, the culture of the Central Plains, Buddhism, West Asia and Central Asia continued to spread to Dunhuang, where different cultures converged, collided, and mingled, making Dunhuang "a great capital where the Chinese and the Rongs met," with a rich and colorful humanistic culture, which is vividly documented in the Mogao Grottoes' wall paintings.

"The Deer Series is inspired by a Northern Wei wall painting in the middle of the west wall of Cave 257 at Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, the Deer King Bunsheng, which measures 58 cm in length by 390 cm in width and tells the story of the predecessor of Siddhartha Gautama, a beautiful nine-colored deer. It tells the story of a beautiful nine-colored deer king who sacrificed himself to save others but was avenged by his enemies, and in the end, the evil people got the evil consequences. The story praises the good deed of the deer king in sacrificing himself to save others, and promotes the value of punishing the evil and promoting the good. According to the book "Guoyu - Jin Yu", "Goodness is the building of virtue". Goodness has always been a universally recognized value throughout history and at all times. Although people have different standards of goodness, the desire for goodness is widely recognized by society.

Years later, when I was living abroad, the story of the Nine-Colored Deer always lingered in my mind, so I began a series of creations on the theme of the "Sacred Deer" by chance. Starting from the exploration of ancient rock-color painting techniques, to the ancient West Asian felt-making process, and then to a piece of paintings, sculptures, murals, and clothing works, I attempted to use various traditional ways to tell the ancient story from the Orient.

-- Karaka New Zealand, January 2024

Styling of the King Deer

What should a deer king look like?

The nine-coloured deer in Dunhuang's murals have long been known to be aesthetically pleasing to the Orient: two-dimensional, linear and ethereal. If I put it in the contemporary context, can I enhance some visual elements? For example, can I add a sense of reality, power and divinity?

With these thoughts in mind, I began to speculate on various images of deer, and strengthened its three-dimensional image by means of sculpture, and slowly the image of the divine deer began to appear: firstly, it is based on the deer's skeleton, muscles, dynamics, and other real structures; at the same time, it also possesses a "divine character" that transcends that of the mundane deer: its body is tall, slender, and healthy, and its whole body is as clean and white as jade, with a gigantic golden colour. At the same time, it has a "divine character" that transcends the mundane deer: tall, slender, athletic, with a body as white as jade, huge golden antlers and anthropomorphic eyes.

Once I had decided on this basic image, I began to make bold attempts.

Get Inspired

The King of Deer on the Container

Christmas 2021 was a time when the world was in the grip of a virus scare, and families stayed at home. The three children had been home for almost a year doing online classes, so what could we do during the long holidays when we couldn't leave the house?

There was an old container sitting by the doorway, so we had an idea: draw on it!

Inspired by the story of the Deer King's Sutra, the painting is presented in three scenes: the Deer King looks out over the mountains and protects the people; after the Deer King saves a man from falling into the water, the people kneel down in thanksgiving; and the Deer King rises up on a cloud of auspiciousness and flies away.

This container has become a landscape in my house, and my friends take photos of it when they visit. For us, seeing it will always remind us of that full and enjoyable holiday!

Art makes memories better.

Creation Period: December 2021-January 2022

Material: Paint, Container

Size: 300 x 800

The King of Deer descends to Tianshan

In the summer of 2022, while walking along the beach, I stumbled upon earthy red, white and yellow coloured soil, which resembled the colours of Dunhuang murals, and this gave me the idea of grinding my own colours. So I collected some clods of soil, ground them, washed them and mixed them with glue to formulate some mineral colours of earthy colours. Of course, these colours were not enough to form a complete colour palette for painting. Then I started to collect and explore various mineral and vegetable colours.

First, the white colours. As the most commonly used colour for painting, its stability and purity are of utmost importance. The white colours commonly used in modern times are zinc white, lead white and titanium white, which are relatively stable and pure with good coverage, but lack layers. The biggest difference between traditional mineral colours and modern industrial materials is the layers of the picture composition. Usually mineral pigments are transparent and have a high refractive index, and their changes are the result of colour relationships formed by rendering over and over again and repeated colouring, whereas industrial pigments can be coloured several times or even at once, which is quick and easy, but the picture lacks layers of colour. This is just like a fine tea that will reveal a different taste level each time it is brewed several times, the more layers are superimposed, the more the thickness and value of the tea is revealed.

Mineral colours come from a wide range of white sources, all kinds of transparent and white stones can be used as colours. The most commonly used colour in Chinese paintings is quartz. Tridacna gemstones are made from the shell of the shellfish Tridacna, which is the largest of the marine shells, with a diameter of up to 1.8 m. Tridacna is listed as one of the Seven Jewels of Buddhism (Tridacna, Gold, Silver, Agate, Coral, Glaze, and Amber) in the Eastern Buddhist text, Vajra, and is one of the Four Great Organic Treasures of the West, along with coral, pearl, and amber. The pure whiteness of giant quartz is regarded as the best in the world. From the point of view of gemmology, only shells with beautiful pearl luster, white colour, halo and delicate texture can be used as gemstones, and the giant amber shell is the most beautiful of all shellfish products. The colour made from giant amber gemstones is called "Clam White", which is a common white colour used in traditional Chinese paintings, and its colour can remain unchanged for thousands of years.

In addition to quartz, transparent crystals and white agates from gemstones are also commonly used as white pigments, and in ancient rock-colour paintings, due to their high refractive index of light transmission, their colours reflect a gem-like lustre and translucency. There is also white mica, which as a semi-precious stone, with its fascinating star-shaped crystal aggregate shape is also known as "astrolite", which is regarded as a spiritual stone that can increase one's positive energy and chakra frequency. Calcite, chalk and kaolin are also available in different shades of white.

Then there are the green colours. Since ancient times, the saturated blue colour has been regarded as a noble and sacred colour, and dark blue was the best and most expensive blue used by Renaissance painters. It was often used in the robes of the Virgin Mary, symbolising holiness and humility. The purest blue was used in the Chinese courts and monasteries. This pure blue colour comes from the precious gemstone, lapis lazuli. The best lapis lazuli is found in Afghanistan, and Chinese lapis lazuli was imported from Afghanistan via the Silk Road. Lapis lazuli was loved by emperors because of its heavenly colour. Emperors used lapis lazuli for the altar of heaven, topaz for the altar of earth, coral for the altar of the sun, and white jade for the altar of the moon.

A common green colour was also blue copper ore, the blue of which is very deep and clear, a mineral that from ancient times has tended to be associated with low humidity deserts and the deep blue of winter skies. Blue copper ore was the main source of blue pigment used by medieval European painters and is the oldest blue pigment in China.

Green colours include turquoise and malachite; red colours include cinnabar, hematite and red coral; yellow colours include androgynous and androgynous; and black colours include graphite, magnetite and iron black ......

As the collection of mineral colours became more comprehensive and the understanding of colours deepened, a picture gradually appeared in my mind: the Nine-coloured Deer King slowly descended from the Heavenly Mountain with auspicious clouds on his feet, looking down at the living beings on the earth. The colours used in this painting must be taken from heaven and earth, from all things in the world, from the moment when a flower blooms, from the moment when the sun sets, from a sudden flash of lightning, from a momentary shower of rain. What I want to create is not only colour, but also the Chinese perception of the world, the divine charm of oriental aesthetics in the soul.

The name of this painting is "The Deer King Goes Down to the Heavenly Mountain"!

--New Zealand Karaka, Summer 2022

Artwork: The King of Deer descends to Tianshan

Materials: Lapis lazuli, blue copper ore, turquoise, mica, clam powder, various coloured crystals, obsidian, andromeda, 24k gold leaf, etc.

Size: 30 x 60 cm

plum blossom

The Three Melodies of Plum Blossoms, also known as the Plum Blossom Quotation, was composed during the Eastern Jin Dynasty. I do not know which famous scholar composed it, but it has the style of the literati of that era.

During the 100-odd years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, except for the 30-odd years before and after the turbulent period, the middle 70 years were a relatively stable and peaceful period. At that time, the Sima clan and the big families shared the world, the literati got a more solid social status than the previous generation, coupled with the southeastern scenic spots and offerings in front of the eyes, so that the literati of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the quiet atmosphere of leisure and self-contentment through a relatively calm and clear era.

In this era, the Eastern Jin literati with a kind of transcendent and unrestrained spirit embarked on a metaphysical life, the road of interest. Everyone can according to their own nature to take the place, do not have to force the same, as long as at any time to be at ease, I am the only appropriate, Confucianism and Taoism can also be absorbed. In terms of artistic creation, the literati had lost the harshness and severity of Ruan Ji and Jikang, and abandoned the decadence of Yuan Kang's famous scholars, and gained a kind of natural and comfortable pleasure in life.

Three Melodies of Plum Blossoms" is in positive key. Through the characteristics of the plum blossom, such as its whiteness, fragrance and resistance to cold, the piece sings the praises of people with noble morals. There are ten passages in the piece, so called because the theme is played three times on the overtones of different emblems of the zither (the upper, middle and lower parts of the instrument).

Ancient people called this piece "The plum is the clearest of flowers, and the zither is the clearest of sounds. The most clear sound is used to write the most clear thing".

Art on the Body

In 2020, as the global epidemic breaks out and all human activity returns to the home, the way we think is changing. Faced with the daily broadcast of deaths, people begin to ask themselves: what is most important? What kind of life should we live?

During the years of the epidemic, I hardly touched my overflowing wardrobe and always wore just a few pieces of clothing, secretly resolving that from now on, every piece of clothing I added to my wardrobe must be unique, irreplaceable, and indispensable.

I can't help but think of those ethnic minority women in southwestern China, who have only a handful of clothes in their lives, but whether it's the regular clothes they wear to work on weekdays or the dresses they wear on festive occasions, they are all carefully and reverently made: spinning, weaving, embroidering, dyeing, and every process is meticulously carried out. In particular, wearing embroidered garments bearing the symbols of their ancestors' deities is tantamount to being sheltered, protected and blessed by their ancestors, who will take good care of their offspring. Therefore, embroidered clothing is not used to protect from the wind and rain or to keep warm, but carries the functions of ancestor worship, faith and cultural inheritance. Such a garment can be worn for a lifetime and passed on for generations.

As the epidemic is finally over in 2022, I decided to make a few pieces of clothing for the children to treasure, using natural materials, ancient craftsmanship, and telling beautiful stories and memories of our journey together.

--New Zealand, 2022

Shawl

-Deer and Crane

The purple breath of the immortal deer.

The moment he lifts his head

And the roaming crane look at each other

This is an encounter

Encounter between heaven and earth

Material:

70% Merino Wool + 30% Silk

Lace

Silk Georgette

Indian wild silk

Lined with double handwoven silk.

Nine-Coloured Deer Shawl

I want to make an extraordinary shawl, like the flowing clouds, like the blue sea and the starry sky; the divine deer is with me, the birds are with me; there is the clearest lake, the purest sky; it makes me laugh and look at the dusty world, and rejoice in my own freedom.

--2022, New Zealand