Map of Distant Snowy Mountain Peaks (后山图之佘山雪霁)

Wang Tiande’s poetic landscape combines layers of xuan paper, Chinese ink, stele rubbings, and burn marks created by incense sticks. By manipulating traditional materials with innovative techniques, Wang reinterprets the past and creates a magical vision haunted by the impending ecological crisis. The format resembles a traditional Chinese hanging scroll. The main panel consists of at least two sheets of paper, layered on top of each other, with the lower inscribed with Chinese characters in black ink and the upper burned by the end of a long incense stick, typically used in Buddhist rituals but here in lieu of a paint brush. A third layer of paper at the bottom of the painting is a rubbing of a stone epitaph from the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), detailing the life achievements of an elite Confucian scholar. Wang’s radical use of materials and techniques transforms this seemingly traditional landscape and calligraphy into a fractured and disembodied image, conveying the fragile nature of Chinese historical traditions in China today. This painting continues Wang’s Digital Series; he has described his process as resembling that of “burning” information (or, in this case, layers of Chinese tradition) onto digital drives.