In this album the ever inventive and adventuresome artist Wang Mansheng turned his talents to the depiction of driftwood gathered near his home in the Hudson River Valley in New York State. Driftwood has not been a subject traditionally depicted by Chinese artists, but Mansheng’s album demonstrates that it is a natural and perfect fit. Just like the “scholar’s rocks” depicted in paintings over many centuries, each piece of wood is an individual, a gift of nature giving rise to ideas, evoking emotions, and inspiring poetic ramblings. The subject also corresponds perfectly with the theme of our exhibition. Driftwood is a migrant, but one that moves without a will of its own, at the mercy of the waters and winds that convey it to distant river or ocean shores. In the artist’s own words, taken here from his colophon translated in full below: “Falling into the river, it can only follow the tide’s rise and fall, bumping into and rubbing against other things. Gradually, large pieces become small and take on unique shapes, none repeated. I have lived in the Hudson Valley for more than 20 years, looking at light on the mountains, the color of water, hearing the seagulls and geese calling in unison. On the bank, driftwood comes to rest, becoming the river’s gift.”
1
Wood can turn to stone, traces of antiquity.
Stone originally wood, forever solidified.
[Seals: Taihang shanren; Bansheng]
2
Scored by insects chewing, from decay the strange and unique,
Ghost hewn and spirit crafted, creation without end.
[Seals: Taihang shanren; Bansheng]
3
Driftwood on the river, floating on the waves, countless turns and circles before settling on this bank.
Wild-haired sorrowful man collects the dragon headed and grand, both illusory and real.
Washing clean of sand and dust, examining every facet,
Finely grinding pine soot, portrait painted as a keepsake.
[Recording Dragon Head Wood, Bansheng’s notation][Seals: Bansheng; Taihang shanren; Wang Mansheng yin]
4
Since antiquity Shan Hai Jing has circulated widely.
The strange and the marvelous, the hard to describe.
What kind of wood knows how to write?
Illusion or real, it shapes the word “mountain.”
[Seals: Bansheng; Taihang shanren]
5
No need to carve rotten wood; it’s already naturally shaped.
Don’t use your law to bind my body.
[Seals: Bansheng; Taihang shanren]
6
I suspected it was a garden spirit stone.
In fact, the pine dropped an old dragon’s scale.
Mountain spring Duan stone, for coloring with light ink.
Spotted bamboo purple hare, for painting it with care.
[Reciting Dragon Scale, Bansheng’s notation][Seals: Bansheng; Taihang shanren]
7
[Seal: Bansheng]
8
[Seal: Bansheng]
9
[Seal: Bansheng]
10
[Seal: Bansheng]
11.
“Rotten wood can’t be carved.” This is what Confucius said when reprimanding a lazy student who couldn’t be molded. In nature, rotten wood is rotten because insects have carved it already. Looking carefully at the markings, one sees endless change, more than one could ever imagine. Studying the process, tree ring growth is either tight or loose. Sometimes there are knots or burls where the patterns formed are countless and crowded, like ripples radiating on water in complex criss-crossings. A proverb says, “When insects are abundant the wood is broken.” From insects and fungus, large wood crumbles into pieces, is weathered by sun, washed by rain. Falling into the river, it can only follow the tide’s rise and fall, bumping into and rubbing against other things. Gradually, large pieces become small and take on unique shapes, none repeated. I have lived in the Hudson Valley for more than 20 years, looking at light on the mountains, the color of water, hearing the seagulls and geese calling in unison. On the bank, driftwood comes to rest, becoming the river’s gift. I gather the curious pieces to place on my desk. Turning them over and over, inspecting every angle, marveling that the craft of ghost or spirit could not surpass this. I’ve attempted to paint their images and put them together in this album, Driftwood Portraits.
Their experience of wandering, I feel, is like people’s.
Bansheng recorded in the Hudson Valley at San Ren Ju.”
[Seals: Bansheng; Wang Mansheng yin]