Fish and Turtles

This screen playfully explores optical reality. The fish and turtles moving through the limpid water lapping at the sand bar are rendered with such scientific accuracy that they can be identified as male and female carp, killifish, and minnows. The fish and turtles are painted on one layer of translucent silk and the water on another, mounted behind the first, so that the creatures appear to swim in the moiré of the silk itself. Despite its novelty, however, this illusory aquatic world still operates within the traditional East Asian framework of auspicious painting, in which the combination of fish, turtles, and pines like those growing at the water’s edge symbolizes wishes for success and longevity.