In Cai Yunyi's paintings over the past two years, Satan often appears as a male figure with red dragon wings or descends to the mortal world in the form of a green snake. Milton once depicted Satan as a noble rebel in Paradise Lost. He is both a tempter and an enlightener of freedom and knowledge, serving as a metaphorical bridge between the dreamscape and the real world in the artist's works. Through dreams, Cai explores the complex realms of taboo, morality, and desire—a theme that permeates her artistic practice.
The id, wrapped in genuine desire, and the transcendent true self frequently overlap in her works. The whispered dialogue between the two reveals the artist's exploration of perceptions that transcend real-world experiences. During the creative process, Cai seems to enter a state of "coexistence between the self and its double" (DOPPELGÄNGER), simultaneously recording her dream self and experiencing the sensation of being observed. This multi-perspective approach powerfully drives the artist's deeper sensory imagination, imbuing her works with an emotional tension where lust and sublimity intertwine.
In a series of works set in the "Hot Spring of the Serpent" scene, the artist uses lines and frames to create spatial overlaps within and beyond the image. Inside the frame lies a misty, realistic space, while outside the window is a space born from the artist's visionary imagination. Horizontal and vertical lines intersect to form a cross, dividing the virtual and the real, while also hinting at the transformation from reality to divinity. In the work Fall in the Realms of Light, Eve inside the window and the red dragon descending outside echo each other, achieving communication with the divine through the dream of slumber. In Eve Listening to Satan's Murmuring, Satan takes the form of a green snake, seemingly able to traverse freely between reality and vision. As the messenger of knowledge and the tempter of the external world, Satan becomes the pathway connecting Eve to a new world. Outside the frame, a blue border resembling an ouroboros forms another boundary between the virtual and the real, while also serving as a visual cue that bridges classical and contemporary aesthetics. In Japanese folklore, the "Hot Spring of the Serpent" was once a place where the injured serpent god was healed. The healing sensation of being enveloped by the hot spring is akin to the rising body temperature during sleep, entering a transformative state of consciousness in dreams, as if allowing one to see illusions of distorted time and space. The intertwining of dreams and legends thus becomes the artist's source of transpersonal emotion, "luring" viewers into a transcendental space between reality and fantasy, where they may perceive entirely new worlds previously unseen.
Cai Yunyi (b. 1995) was born in Shanghai, China, and currently lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from Musashino Art University, a Master's degree in Intermedia Art from Tokyo University of the Arts, and a Ph.D. in Production of Art from Musashino Art University. Fascinated by the uncanny feelings and the exploration of the invisible, Cai Yunyi uses painting as a medium to manifest hidden forces, a kind of magic to resurrect the ghosts of dreams, and a pathway to connect with new worlds...