Black & White Mustard Seed Garden (Tale of the 11th Day Series)白描芥子園(十一日談系列)
2009–2014
In this expansive landscape, animals and humans transcend all conventional boundaries to engage in relationships that are by turns playful, erotic, and predatory. Is this a paradise of unfettered desire, or a lawless and chaotic hell? Trained in calligraphy and ink painting, Yang Jiechang invokes the cultural authority of these classical art forms through brushwork and compositional models. At the same time, he subverts this authority with suggestions of violence and sexuality, and ultimately leaves the ethics of the scene unresolved, portraying himself as a bald satyr—a human-horse hybrid—on the rightmost panel, nestled amidst tree branches near his signature.