In the mid-1980s, French artist Bernard Piffaretti created his own system of painting language, called the “Piffaretti System”. The system is not complicated: every time he completes a painting, he creates a copy of it and juxtaposes it with the original. In the process of copying, he finds that the picture (including his emotions) only gets “worse”, so sometimes he simply uses a blank canvas instead. What he wants to say is that it is actually impossible to copy paintings (by hand).

Coincidentally, although another French artist Laure Prouvost does not have such a clear methodology, “out of control” in different ways and to different degrees has become a consistent theme and emotional language in her images. As she puts it, “As an artist, I often like to lose control and only hint at some clues, allowing every viewer to have his or her own interpretation. Viewers should find their own sense of environment and use their imagination. I like to take the viewer into a place where they may not be able to go back.” Coincidentally, Piffaretti is also conveying the idea of “not being able to go back” in his irreproducible copies. And this may be one of the most profound prophecies about the present time.

Global capitalism has dragged mankind into a frantically accelerating order. However, a sudden pandemic has caused this order to be completely paralyzed and out of control. Perhaps in the past, as a “single member” in the order, we did not have intuition or awareness of it, but the pandemic has almost made everyone bump into the harsh reality: there is no going back, and the future is uncertain.