Series of huge water-ink paintings without Xuan paper, such as Untitled Series and Stele-trace Series by Mao Xiaolang in the past years, seem to be a rediscovery to the deseted. The rediscovery has a liberating meaning to loneliness. Loneliness itself turns a huge vein of gold. So it certainly brings about hesitation and prevarication to those eyes accustomed to old system. When we are appreciating his works, to what extent can we feel the living life behind them? The mystery of life shrouds the deserted tableau. This is really a conscious territory, which infuses the same spirit, ancient or present. It is a territory focused on comprehending our consciousness. Without sensitive eyes and mind, you will probably gain nothing. This is the artist’s mind projected in the deserted world. There light deep in your heart fused with images in your eyes. Those images are nearly buried in abstract touches. Thus a completely-new look is showed out, which I call, “Abstract Image Art” (Untitled Series)

On the surface, ruling these tableaus seems some scaffolds, vines with level and oblique fluctuations and heartfelt convulsions. He deliberately put images in his eyes at the edge of disintegration. Though confining chromatograms, he hinted magnificent historical space in simple black brown. Then the image of mist came out. Mist seems the best choice to manifest God’s decrees! God, who asks the artist for a favor, moves on paper with mind, luck and even the artist’s depression with brushes. Even colors and images are facing the danger of melting. However, all metaphors come out of such disorders. It seems that God manifests human’s consciousness is vast and bare, especially through image incompletion or emptiness with only traces. Standing at the edge of  the vast and bare, Mao Xiaolang can surely see images beyond description. Finally he forces spectators’ eyes to turn into inner of his works so as to comprehend mystery and loveliness of these plausible things and to comprehend visional consciousness vein after the bud of feelings and concepts has driven out the devil, reality. What is interesting, Image Art with enough images doesn’t exist here, nor Abstract Art with only touches. He takes in both of them. The artist can develop a vast sense which shows time and space through narrowness and new expressions which shows out limitless consciousness through limited humans traces. Especially in Stele-trace Series, owing to the unique style of drawing by Mao Xiaolang, a strong consciousness comes out, which connects humans hints with history.

Some tableau looks casual, sluggish and ambiguous, but in fact shouldn’t be treated absent-mindedly. Every touch says they are fairly arranged. When such arrangement bedded in his heart, and this hazy impulse began to brew, what his style of drawing would imitate is a subtle poetic flavor or historical structure, that is, his according style of drawing and image arrays, is a volunteering inclination during the fluctuation of sentiment and life. This technique, inclined to structure when he feels about his style of drawing, leads to overall observation to the world, but not disorderly, blind. This technique also well prepared an understandable new environment for the immediate feeling or impulse when drawing. Tracing every touch, you can not only see humans character details, but the state of human existence. When he wants to extract poetic flavor from touches, what he worries is that, after deviating all rules of seniors, to what extent can he extract? Because the new prospect of art democracy is not agreed with his proud intellect and temper. So such deviation depends more on recasting sense of history, which can be clearly observed in his Stele-trace Series. Tableau of them are in fact abstract, just like Chinese ink or weathering marks. But I have a sense of being through history which is hard to describe. Those seem images of deserted city, vast dusk, tombs and skeletons, which can not only be put into our comprehension, but truly exist in our feelings when appreciating. Disappointment to the world of the artist are so clear now. All are hints after life stops to a standstill. All images seem in the process of weathering and disappearing, soaked a sense of history beyond retrieve.

Tracing such train of thought, we can see life structure that looks mysterious but in fact stable from his paintings. In the surface ornament, he really cares humans’ fate and he tasted the flavor and power of modern life. Like a retreat man in mountains of touches, he expressed a sense of distance which can be shortened but still full of loneliness. He put out doubt to our familiar past. Past images, such as veins, Greek arches, brick walls, heads, scaffolds, backbones of books, calligraphy and so on, as disguises, they became another possibilities to manifest the unknown on canvases. Here I’d like to make a summary. This is really a state in which reality is so deficient till only imagination left. Some touches and images aren’t harmonious before, but out of loyalty to history, they make an ensemble with surprising sound. Water-ink paintings without Xuan paper by Mao Xiaolang can be regarded as a moving aesthetic mountain which supplies soul observation out of eyes, but not the ordinary seeing. Succumbing in fear of his order of touches, spectators reach up to a state of emptiness, as well as a state of consciousness.