Mapping a blazing talent

Artist seeks to explore 'relationship between fire and paper' with new series, Xu Haoyu reports.

Xiang Hao, a 39-year-old artist who's based in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, was exhibiting 11 of his works at Once Gallery in Beijing. With a curiosity to observe "the relationship between fire and paper", he has partially burned his paintings and named the series Map.

"It's hard to describe the shape of fire, but the clue is leaked out through the trace it leaves," Xiang says.

The artist drew circles with ink, charcoal and acrylic on rice paper, representing the contours of the terrain and the power of nature.

"Any matter in the universe has its own power from the moment it is created, and at this point, the spreading waveform of the circles is like a restricted or unrestricted version of the field of matter. Some of the power is within our physical reach, while others can only be felt with the heart," says Xiang.

He mentions the saying "fire cannot be wrapped in paper", which Chinese people use while expressing the idea that the truth cannot be concealed.

"I wonder what will come out when I'm trying to control something that is not easy to control," he says.