An artwork from Wu's Taihu Rock series at Xi Space. [PHOTO BY ZHU LINYONG/CHINA DAILY]

The well-received exhibition gave a huge boost to Wu's self-confidence as an artist who, in his own words, "then rushed back to my home city of Zhengzhou to prepare for the second installment of the Beijing solo exhibition."

Wu was eager to place another bulk of his artistic work, created in secrecy at a 6,000 square meter studio in suburban Zhengzhou between 2014 and 2019, under academic and public scrutiny, "like a primary schoolboy waiting impatiently for the teacher's words about his newly completed homework".

While the Today Art Museum exhibition focused on Wu's endeavors to participate in cross-cultural dialogue, the second installment offers audiences the chance to examine the artist's exploration of Chinese cultural heritage and ancient philosophy, explains Zhang Quan, art connoisseur and curator of the Melting Objects show.

Arguably the most eye-catching and thought-provoking works are Wu's Oracle Bones series, the Taihu Rock series and the traditional Chinese medicine series, which Wu has been working on continuously since 2014.

To casual viewers, the Oracle Bones series look like the fossil bones of some unknown prehistoric creatures.

"They are a duplicated version of the oracle bones, first found in Anyang, Henan, in 1899－enlarged in size, inscribed with Chinese characters, and patched with fragmented pages from ancient books－imitations of course," Wu says.

The Taihu Rock series is much like the decorative rocks, produced in the area surrounding Taihu Lake in East China's Jiangsu province, long favored by ancient scholars who usually placed them in their studios alongside hanging scrolls and potted plants. Actually, Wu meticulously carved them out of camphor wood and coated them with gradations of colors.