She: the Snake
Next up in the Chinese zodiac was a real challenge for two reasons: 1) connotations and 2) dimensionality.
1) The snake just doesn't get much of a break in any folklore I can name. Poor old reviled snake! Perhaps snagging a year in its honour is better than being blamed for evil in the West, but the Chinese list the snake as one of the Five Noxious Creatures. Sure, it slithers, has no limbs, has sharp teeth and sometimes poisonous venom, but really, snakes are generally people-shy and no worse than any other predator. OK, the poisonous venom thing is pretty creepy. But non-venomous snakes are pretty nifty. The eat rodents, which is useful. Some people claim that they sense something prior to earthquakes and have been reported to have suddenly, and suicidally come out of hibernation prior to an earthquake in 1975 near Haicheng (a city of one million). Due to this and other reasons* Chinese officials ordered the evacuation of the city just days before a 7.3-magnitude quake. Many lives were saved!
2) I look at the snake (like a physicist... think "spherical cows") and see a largely one-dimensional animal. The mathematicians might start in on fractals (and I suspect the snake might be something like a 1.8-D to 2.3-D animal) and the biologist probably think this is madness, but really, the dominate dimension is clearly length. Sure, there is some breadth and depth, particularly if it has eaten Petit Prince-style... but the issue is how to make an interesting, preferably 3-, not 2-D image.
Right, here goes:
The Chinese character for snake is onomatopoeic She. The print "She: the Snake" is a lino block print on Japanese kozo (mulberry paper) in a limited edition of 30 prints. It is 8" by 12.5" (20.3 cm by 31.8 cm).
*Note: Sadly, this is largely a case of dumb luck as most of the reasons can only be described as unscientific, though some (like long term tilt data) may prove to be useful.
1) The snake just doesn't get much of a break in any folklore I can name. Poor old reviled snake! Perhaps snagging a year in its honour is better than being blamed for evil in the West, but the Chinese list the snake as one of the Five Noxious Creatures. Sure, it slithers, has no limbs, has sharp teeth and sometimes poisonous venom, but really, snakes are generally people-shy and no worse than any other predator. OK, the poisonous venom thing is pretty creepy. But non-venomous snakes are pretty nifty. The eat rodents, which is useful. Some people claim that they sense something prior to earthquakes and have been reported to have suddenly, and suicidally come out of hibernation prior to an earthquake in 1975 near Haicheng (a city of one million). Due to this and other reasons* Chinese officials ordered the evacuation of the city just days before a 7.3-magnitude quake. Many lives were saved!
2) I look at the snake (like a physicist... think "spherical cows") and see a largely one-dimensional animal. The mathematicians might start in on fractals (and I suspect the snake might be something like a 1.8-D to 2.3-D animal) and the biologist probably think this is madness, but really, the dominate dimension is clearly length. Sure, there is some breadth and depth, particularly if it has eaten Petit Prince-style... but the issue is how to make an interesting, preferably 3-, not 2-D image.
Right, here goes:
The Chinese character for snake is onomatopoeic She. The print "She: the Snake" is a lino block print on Japanese kozo (mulberry paper) in a limited edition of 30 prints. It is 8" by 12.5" (20.3 cm by 31.8 cm).
*Note: Sadly, this is largely a case of dumb luck as most of the reasons can only be described as unscientific, though some (like long term tilt data) may prove to be useful.