www.TwoCrows.co.uk

David Watson Hood, visual artist

Deer Crying Under Red Maples II, 丹枫呦鹿二

It is after, Crying deer under the red maple tree (丹枫呦鹿图) by an unkown painter of 'The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period' 五代十国 佚名 AD 907-60. In both the original and in my paraphrases a herd of seven hinds and a stag during the rut are disturbed by something 'off stage left'. Perhaps another stag has challenged or a person or predator has been detected. I chose this piece, from more than a thousand years ago, to steal from because it fits my theme by focusing on both difference and similarity at great spatial and temporal distances. It gets in quite a few "top ten of Chinese painting" lists but also has elements that are easily interpreted by a European aesthetic even the early medieval world was a small one in some respects. It also depicts a scene that while it may seem anachronistic to a 'townie'could in fact be happening in much of the real world any autumn all be it as part of an ecology that is everywhere threatened.