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Liu Yukun's science fiction novel "The Beili Aliens" describes the scene of humanity's first landing on Beili Star as "a crystal store that appears to have been robbed." It took people a long time to realize that these "crystals" were actually alive. Unlike Earth's carbon-based life forms, they were "silicon-based life," resembling crystals, mainly moving with the wind, and the glowing threads inside served as memory storage. Combining the wind-based properties of silicon-based life forms and the plant attributes of moss, I designed "silicon-based plants" that move with the wind in a spiral wing-like manner. Over the course of many years, "silicon-based moss" grows and reproduces slowly yet vigorously, while nearby stones stand like monuments, pure white and translucent, reminiscent of the world's pristine beginnings.


This virtual imagining of the world at its inception serves as an important catalyst in He Siwei's paintings. Graduating from the Chinese Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, He Siwei combines Chinese ink painting with elements of natural biology, games, and science fiction. The collision of different thoughts forms a unique experimental response field of multiple cultures.

He Siwei's delicate perception of the natural world often resonates with her personal experiences. In her artwork "Minecraft", the artist uses "moon moss" (light moss) as the subject. Robin Wall Kimmerer's "Braiding Sweetgrass" describes the scene of her discovery of light moss: "In the caves churned out by the waves on the shore, only at sunset when the sun disappears below the horizon can light enter, and light moss quickly refracts the light in these few minutes, converting it into sugar to survive the upcoming darkness." Light moss is so mysterious and unassuming, much like the artist's experience in the single-player game "Minecraft" where life is inherently solitary and serene.

Ancient people often referred to moss growing on stone monuments as "moss writing." The inscriptions on the monument are no longer discernible, replaced by the words of time—moss writing. "Moss" has erased all "traces of man" over the long years, symbolizing primal strength and the will of nature. In He Siwei's paintings, everything is as quiet as it was initially, human consciousness is drawn into a vacuum, and instead, looks back at this world with static objects. In fantastical stories that disregard physical rules, there is a hidden narrative logic of reality, not entirely detached from reality but rather an extension of experiencing the current world. This is also the artist's exploration of the individual's inner spiritual world and contemplation of distant civilizations.

Freud believed that dreams are meaningful mental phenomena and a fulfillment of desires. In this "Moss Garden Chronicles" on the ridges and in the mountain streams, the quiet joy of "moss" and "stone" detach from the logic and pressure of the current world, providing an experience of spiritual release and a rebellious freedom from ordinary cognition. Games, reality, dreams, the blurred lines between reality and fiction, the disappearance of human traces, the moss grows over, completing the depiction of the spiritual space where life naturally grows in the illusory reality.

Text by Liu Geling


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ABOUT THE ARTIST

HE SIWEI（何思薇）


He Siwei (b. 1994), born in Shenzhen, China, graduated with a bachelor's and master's degree in Flower-and-Bird Painting from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, where she studied under Mr. Mei Zhongzhi, and currently lives and works in Hangzhou. He Siwei draws inspiration from her imagination of the world's origins, combining ink painting with surreal elements such as dreams, science fiction, and games. She portrays a world that is both lonely and pure, yet brimming with vitality. Her major exhibitions include: HE SIWEI: No Heed to Earthly Affairs, Gallery Where, Beijing, China (2024); Guardian: The Tenth Anniversary Series Exhibition of Hangzhou Traditional Chinese Painting Institute, Hangzhou Traditional Chinese Painting Institute Art Museum, Hangzhou, CN (2023); Chinese Impressions Art Exhibition, Cross Street, Paris, FR (2019); "Centennial Eulogy: Illuminating China-Europe" Contemporary Chinese Painting Art Exhibition, Czech-British College, CZ (2018)...


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