大地苍茫，星空浩瀚，这伟大的棋局隐于黑暗，也被光芒照亮……

Wan Yi’s "Chess"series leaves us with a direct and abrupt impression: the  strong contrast between black and white, the chess pieces driven into the pictures like nails in a way that is almost "outrageous,domineering, unreasonable". However, in the next moment, we are alerted bya sudden "revelation": this abrupt contrast between the black and white chess pieces constitutes an overall Yin and Yang image world, which is obviously created by the artist’s deliberate effort, perhaps to lead us intohis artistic realm and to uncover the secret he is searching, hunting, exploring, and trying to express with his imagery art.

Black and white, Yin and Yang, a simple dialectical mindset and world outlook, this ishow we have been recognizing and grasping the cosmic nature and the world for thousands of years. About "Chess", we do not rule out the possibility that Wan Yi has built his image composition in the usual sense of "chessgame" versus "worldly life" or in a broader sense of metaphorand symbolism, but when we inadvertently find the ghost-like numbers on the blackand white pieces, and therefore diverge as if unwittingly "sliding"or “being dragged" into a wide vision of their profound background, we have to bear the repeated strong shock waves the series is generating:"2020", bacteria, masks, syringes, protective clothing .... 

We are almost out of breath. When we calm down, we are troubled by a deep worry and anxiety:illusion, dream, history, reality, depressed hidden subconsciousness, and soberclear consciousness, it is so chaotic and messy and yet so explicit and orderly. 

In fact, as long as we carefully distinguish, in the profoundly chaotic and confusing background of the series, those diversified reversal images rich in historical connotations(such as "ark","aircraft carrier","nuclearwarhead","propeller", "skull","philosopher",etc.) run through the whole human civilization fromits very mythological beginning, even comprising the history of human life and mind. 

In this sense, these images do not only contribute to the richness and depth of the artistic and ideological dimensions of “Chess”, but also interact with the abrupt presence of the black and white pieces both in form and incontent to maintain the strong tension between appearance and essence, between substance and spirit, so as to further demonstrate another dimension of theartist's true intention: human survival always moves forward in game playing, and"Chess", a totemic symbol of the wisdom of Eastern thinking, not only refutes the so-called "rationality" of Western human egocentrism, but also reflects on the current existential difficulties. "Yin and Yang live together according to natural law". The light of Oriental wisdom passing through thousands of years of history will surely illuminate the future of mankind.

Wan Yi’s “Chess”series was created around the time of the outbreak of covid-19 in 2020. This time juncture seems to be a strong proof of the above interpretation of the content. Wan Yi, however, might offer us another picture:

The vast earth, the vast starry sky, this great chess game hidden in the darkness is also illuminated by the light ...

May2, 2021
English translation: Song Dongsheng