The exhibition by Shanghai artist Hu Xing Yi is a marriage of painting and installation of three-dimensional
objects. The works consist a large number of traditional cooking pots, or woks. The inside of the woks of
various sizes is filled with painted faces. The vaguely painted faces appear as if they were the burned rice
left at the bottom of the woks, the stains of juicy dishes, or the filth of oily deep fry. They emit a sense of
existence of history-the kind that would be recorded by the unearthed artifacts. They are the condensed
delicious smell of explosion of the material world. And they are buried together with the human nature and
spirit that is now perished. When get close to the woks, the viewer's own dimmed reflection would temporarily
become a part of the art. Staring at the unrecognizable faces in the strange cavity of the woks, one might find
him or herself confronting a slice of his or her own present reality- whether in the process of searching for
a true self, or fantasizing a fictional superego. Maybe the faces are simply the epitome of a particular social
layer. What has been stained would remain stained forever, and would be buried in the visible or invisible places.
