The Drain Cover Discourse

It began one morning when I decided to take a picture of wide open spaces. Next to the school where I teach, there is a large beautiful canal, and to one side of the canal, there is a grass area about the size of the canal. It is somewhat smaller than a soccer field, but it is nevertheless a wide open space. I began shooting, but after about twelve shots or thereabouts, what really caught my eye was a drain cover overgrown with weeds and grass.

The simple drain cover overgrown with weeds reminded me of many things. It reminded me of Duchamp's "Why Not Sneeze" and Tapies's "Palla i fusta" (translated into "Straw and wood"). The drain cover itself reminded me of the Minimalist Japanese window screens, while the grass and weeds were like the strokes of a Huang Binhong painting. I thought that it was the chance meeting of three great men, namely Duchamp, Tapies, and Huang Binhong.

Of course, I did not begin with the intention of producing an artwork which combines these influences, but I don't see anything wrong if I say the drain cover reminded me of these things. Indeed, it could be all these and more. Then again, a drain cover is just a drain cover.

This brings to mind a Zen saying: Before you study Zen, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. While you are studying Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no longer rivers, but once you have had enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and rivers again rivers.

To me, the drain cover is simultaneously both a drain cover and not a drain cover.

And so I took a photo of the drain cover, for the angle I wanted was impossible to draw from. Then I printed the photo and drew from the photo.

At this point you say, "Stop! Wait a minute. Why can't the photo be the art? Why is there a need to draw?"

So, is my drawing art? What is the art and where is the art? Where does the art begin and where does it end?

Honestly, I have no answers to these questions... ...