"When I was creating The West and The East No. 1 (Lot 2535), I wanted to show a bounded enclosure containing boundless stories of people. When I made the plot, I know I don't want to paint human figures, I want to represent human. The setting of the painting resembles the background of a photo studio, with empty chairs in an empty room, it is all about who came and who will come. Whether it's a chair or a fence, a pot of serissa or a pot of rhodea, whatever I am thinking, I want to paint them with my brush. But simply their presence is not enough, or not beautiful enough. Therefore, I design and shape, and naturally taking advantage of traditional symbols once again, I painted part of The Riverbank on the background.
From then on, I started to abandon consciously the crutch of traditional culture that supported me, I wish I can walk on my own two feet, and create a kind of truly tranquil and solid atmosphere in my painting."
- Qin Ai