A. Fiery Ink is a conceptual series that involves ruminations on the following aspects: 1. The dialectics of the physical properties of the creative medium It has been stated in the “Annotations of Gongsun Chou I, Mengzi” that “charcoal is ink.” “Fiery ink” is a term belonging to the vocabulary of physical properties derived from the consideration of the metamorphosis of cultural objects into new creative media. Ink wash metamorphosed from fire to water, while “fiery ink” the opposite. Using grey ashes without water or glue to imitate ancient ink wash paintings involves the dialectics of the physical properties of cultural objects. Ink wash and fiery ink, as two divergent aesthetic terms, form a dialectical relationship that seeks similarities in differences. 2. The expansion of the aesthetics of inkiness The inkiness of ink wash is integral to the kernel of the East Asian painting aesthetic system, which attaches importance to “moist ink rather than dry-as-dust ink.” Such inkiness has been the primary criterion for the unbreakable perspective and judgment of “ink wash” aesthetics since antiquity. “Fiery ink” instead reconfigures the classical “moist ink” with “parched ink,” directly confronting the long-hidden reverse aesthetic.. In other words, it takes a non-traditional) aesthetic approach to push the limits of classical aesthetics. 3. The reconstruction of the zeitgeist context Traditional ink-wash landscape painting with its misty saturation and related vocabulary of inkiness can no longer portray the 21st-century crises of climate change and air pollution. How can we highlight the fact that the quality of landscapes and air in the industrial era stands in stark contrast to that of the agricultural age? I use “fiery ink” to represent air pollution as a common phenomenon in the contemporary world. The gray ashes imply smog’s dry particulates. The work represents a fresh new perspective on contemporary landscape painting that has developed over time, manifesting the corporeal perceptions of the landscape painter. 4. The translation of cultural images Classical paintings are cultural images that have turned into historical material. Previous imitations mostly inherited the same cultural identity. In contrast, I look for differences rather than similarities, embodying my attitude towards cultural reflection. The ostensible matching is actually inversion. It inverts the original cultural contents carried by traditional imagery, thereby creating greater diversity in interpretation. B. The additional creative philosophy behind Fiery Ink, Replacing Fan Kuan’s Snowy Cold Forest Landscape: As the largest of the only three box-based installations in the Fiery Ink series, apart from the aspects mentioned above, this work also displays the following characteristics: 1. The transparent box The Classic of Devices, a masterpiece written in the Spring and Autumn period, begins with the statement that space-time, heaven, and earth are tantamount to a receptacle. Fiery Ink primarily revolves around air-related issues, which is why I specifically use a transparent acrylic box to symbolize a receptacle for air. In the receptacle lies the painting Snowy Cold Forest Landscape, which is another receptacle containing landscape, heaven, and earth. All these formal arrangements center on the idea of air. 2. The paper rolls on the bottom of the box The half-burnt rice paper rolls installed on the bottom of the box not only symbolize chimneys belching dense black smoke but also echo the landscape painting in the box created from grey ashes.. The ashes indicate the source of the creative medium, invoke the metaphor of factory chimneys to represent carbon emissions, and convey the imagery of sacrificial offerings. 3. The grey ashes on the bottom of the box The grey ashes sprinkled on the bottom of the box imply carbon emissions in the air. Like the unfixed ashes in the painting, the ashes at the bottom of the box lie strewn in a natural pattern, a metaphorical expression of air circulation.. As a result, these ashes may drift slightly whenever the box is moved, showing that air is at play therein.