雙囍 · Shuāng Xǐ — Double Happiness

A single goldfish, life-size, suspended in a generous expanse of space. This was where 雙囍 began. My work is guided by a deep appreciation for Song dynasty aesthetics, and I am drawn as much to the space surrounding a subject as to the subject itself. I was single then, and the fish held something of me. Where some viewers felt loneliness, I saw the unknown—all that might still arrive.

Commissions for couples and friends brought a second fish into the paintings. I found pleasure in these pairings. The space remained, now shared by two, and the series gradually took shape.

I return to the Chan saying 見山是山，見山不是山，見山祇是山: mountains are mountains, then no longer mountains, then simply mountains again. A fish may carry a likeness, a feeling, a story. It may also remain a fish. The surrounding space leaves these possibilities open.

囍 holds two 喜 characters together. 喜 appears in both my grandfather’s name and my artist name, giving this familiar symbol of marriage and doubled happiness a private resonance. Dedicated to my grandparents, these paintings carry a wish for companionship and shared joy into the lives of those who collect them.