The Year of the Dragon's entry in an annually-updated series on the Chinese zodiac, Had I Been Better Then, Would I Be Better Now? depicts a white dragon - translucent, impossibly long, and possessing twelve pairs of human limbs - repeatedly entwined and knotted along its serpentine form. With no clear external forces present, it appears that the dragon can only have wound itself into this mass. The length of its body winds out of view at the bottom of the frame, with unknowable twists and turns occurring, perhaps even entering the ground or exiting the atmosphere, until its tail reemerges from the top of the frame. Arms and hands splay about, making sense of the situation to little avail. The inherent power of the dragon in Chinese cosmology is subverted by its complicated and self-induced predicament. Is the dragon doomed to deepen its self-entanglement? Or, is the solution to become both the Gordian knot and Alexander, assuming power over its position and finally obtaining freedom by cutting itself to pieces?
22 x 28 in, watercolor and gouache on paper.
Exhibited in The Body Revolts | The Body Aligns at The Starving Artist, 2024.
