A fish bred for an aquarium enters ink painting为水族箱繁育的鱼，如何进入水墨画？

The fish in these paintings are tropical ornamental fish bred for aquariums. Modern classification, selective breeding, aquarium keeping and trade made them a recognisable category of animals to be bought, kept and watched. That history matters when we ask how the fish became a subject of Chinese ink painting.

The exhibition places Wang Lanruo’s I Love Tropical Fish in Clear Springs beside works by Huang Dufeng and Singapore artist See Cheen Tee. Their paintings connect encounters with Southeast Asia to a changing ink repertoire. See’s Forging Ahead bears an inscription celebrating Singapore’s twenty-fifth National Day in 1990: the ornamental fish also enters a language of national celebration. The research follows the animals, their circulation and the artists’ ways of seeing them to understand how a modern subject takes shape.

这里的“热带鱼”，指为水族箱人工繁育的热带观赏鱼。现代生物分类、人工育种、水族饲养与贸易，共同使它们成为一种可以买卖、饲养和观看的现代动物类别。理解这段历史，才能追问：它们如何成为中国水墨画的新题材？

展览将王兰若《我爱清泉热带鱼》与黄独峰、新加坡艺术家许振第的作品并置，联系艺术家的东南亚经验与水墨题材的变化。许振第《奋勇向前》还题有庆祝新加坡建国二十五周年的文字，让观赏鱼进入了国家庆典的表达。研究由此沿着动物的繁育、流通与艺术家的观看经验展开，考察一个现代题材怎样形成。