Michael Cherney combines calligraphy and landscape photography to critically reflect on contemporary social phenomena. In this work, Cherney picks one text in Chinese written by the renowned 11th century literati Su Shi and another rewritten from modern English novelist Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse. He then writes them together in even steps and groups the calligraphy with a photograph to form a diptych, paving a path of thoughts for the audience to move from the text to the landscape, and vice versa.

The landscape Cherney took is a monolith in dim light, rising from the bottom of the wall all the way to the viewers’ eyes, making itself overwhelming and mysterious. Judging it by the cover is effortless, for the graininess and darkness dissolve figuration, and when the monolith reaches the sky, it fades into the fog. For Cherney, recent incidents such as the Sino-American relationship take such form: if the world you know revolves around video clips, it is superficial; but if you dare to dig deeper into the incidents and think critically, you are likely to be closer to the truth than others. This post-truth theme is echoed in both texts, as Su’s story discovers a truth behind the local geological rumor, and Woolf’s text describes in an almost religious tone how the truth is likely to come down to you if you dare to challenge.

秋麦的这幅新作从摄影师和中国文人的视角反思当下的诸多国际社会问题。在这幅作品中，艺术家延续了他在《其间》系列中的一贯做法：他在左幅中以行草书写北宋文豪苏轼的《石钟山记》，并穿插英国现代作家弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙著作《到灯塔去》的截选，让两篇文本以均匀的节奏融合。左幅的书法又与右幅的摄影并列，为观众提供一种水平的思维动线。

右幅的山水来自秋麦多年前在湖南张家界武陵源拍摄的峻峭山峦。这山如笋般直立生长，在眼前高耸巍峨，并在通体的影翳中透出一派深邃幽玄的神秘感。光凭这山的面貌了解它是徒劳的。目光游走入那颗粒斑驳的阴暗处时便丢了焦点，随山势向上攀时，顶峰又隐入浓雾。对于秋麦来说，近期的时事，例如中美关系，正有这种面貌：如果你单凭短视频来认知世界，那就太肤浅了；但如果你敢于深究事物并批判性地思考，你大概率就能比大多数人更接近真相。我们在两篇文本中都能读到秋麦的这种后真相主义思考。苏轼的文章讲述他和儿子苏迈破解当地的地质传闻的故事，伍尔芙的小说则以一种宗教式的笔触描述真相如何在你敢于挑战和追问时自动向你展开。