Kaitlin Smrcina
Butterflies, and Bisected Sardine, is a commentary of the boundary between art and craft in traditional Chinese Bird-And-Flower paintings. While considered decorative with no intellectual or spiritual meaning, Bird-And-Flower work prospered for their subject matter’s auspicious powers and beautifying capacity. Despite their surface level compositions, Bird-And-Flower paintings have stood the test of time, being popular beyond the Song dynasty, for their iconic and beautiful motifs that distinguish themselves for their flatness and sometimes impossible, or out of place, compositions. This tendency of flatness, also present in Japanese art, inspired Takashi Murakami’s famous ‘Superflat’ in contemporary art.
Interested in subverting the Bird-And-Flower painting genre, I lean into “craft” through ceramic mosaics, and use traditional imagery alongside numbers to derive transgressive meanings. Translated in my own compositional language, the mosaic medium keeps the image ‘Superflat’ while doubling down on the craft aspect. Looking at the subject matter, the background is placed in summer, which, while a fruitful time, the inevitability of fall is around the corner with impending decay. Daisies are a symbol for hope while 4 has been, modernly, considered unlucky for it being almost homophonous to the Chinese character for death. For the prominent “foreground” flowers, I use Crabapple buds to express heartbreak and sorrow. Fish are a symbol for wealth and abundance in Chinese culture and 1 as a number is neither auspicious or inauspicious. While 2 is considered lucky, with the common saying ‘good things come in pairs’, what happens when 1 becomes 2 through violence? The act of bisecting my primary subject is a response to the 2024 presidential election. While the results did not surprise me, the constant reminder of America’s hatred and disregard towards marginalized communities and women is detrimentally discouraging. As a way to leave the audience with hope, the bisected fish is flanked by two purple butterflies, representing celestial symbols of immortality of love, and transformation.
From every aspect of the background to subject matter, this composition is an attempt at giving weight to the Bird-And-Flower genre, by politicizing the subjects and disputing the connoisseurs of the dynastic time’s hatred of the genre for its “simplicity.”